Falcons felled by flood of first-half tries

Freefalling Newcastle Falcons still show few signs of achieving a first league win since October, going down to a first-half blitz by London Irish at the Madejski Stadium yesterday in a thirteenth successive Premiership defeat.

Six unanswered tries in the opening forty minutes gave the Exiles a 40-12 lead at the break, and though the Falcons dominated the second half, there were no more points and Worcester's bonus-point double against Exeter on Saturday reduces the gap at the bottom of the table to seven points with three games remaining.

Dean Richards made several changes to the side that lost at home to Worcester a fortnight ago, bringing Rory Clegg, Ryan Shortland, Jamie Helleur, Lee Smith and Grant Shiells into the starting line-up, while Dom Barrow was on the bench with Mike Blair.

Spirits were high among the dozen travelling Geordies among the 5,674 enjoying the Berkshire sunshine, but it took only three minutes for Irish to get on the scoreboard with a scurrying try from former Falcons winger Andrew Fenby. James O'Connor, on what may have been his last appearance for the home side, converted and though a Clegg penalty on six minutes got the Falcons going, almost immediately the fly-half had a kick charged down close to goal and Fergus Mulchrone pounced to score under the posts.

The conversion made the deficit eleven points after just a few minutes, and though Clegg knocked over two more kicks in the opening quarter, they sandwiched by Fenby's second score following a scrum after Irish were held up.

The Falcons' defence improved for a while as they did not ship any more points to the rampant Readingers until after Clegg had made the scoreline 19-12 with his fourth penalty on the half-hour. However, again Irish hit back quickly, Eamonn Sheridan going over from close range to secure the hosts' first try bonus point of the season in the Premiership. Then Fenby stole the ball from Warren Fury on halfway before racing through for his hat-trick score.

On half-time, Gerard Ellis touched down an opportunist try from the base of a ruck and O'Connor's conversion brought Irish to the forty-point mark.

During the break, the previously good mood in the away section had been replaced with acceptance that the Falcons had played poorly and not deserved to be any closer to their opponents on the scoreboard. If the second half was no better, then Irish might run up a very embarrassing score.

Joel Hodgson, George McGuigan and Mike Blair were among an early raft of replacements and the tempo of the Falcons' game lifted immediately, to the extent that they dominated territory for much of the second period. Shortland had a number of chances, knocking on two and being controversially denied a try by the TMO following a forward pass.

Helleur was also unable to break through a strong home defence, while Hodgson's creativity was not enough on this occasion against a team playing only for pride.

The second half ended pointless, giving Irish a 40-12 victory and leaving the Falcons with some serious thinking to do as, even though relegation looks unlikely this season, the mood among supporters is growing ever more angry by the game and there are few signs that anything new is being tried to improve things.