Saracens 19-22 Newcastle

Saracens (6) 19
Tries: De Kock, Vyvyan
Pens: Ross 2, Jackson

Newcastle (15) 22
Tries: Tait, Flood, Noon
Cons: Wilkinson 2
Pens: Wilkinson

Newcastle held off a second-half fightback from Saracens to claim a thrilling Guinness Premiership win.

Tries from Mathew Tait and Toby Flood helped the Falcons into a 15-6 lead at the break, with Gordon Ross slotting two penalties for the home side.

Saracens upped their game after the break and took the lead through tries from Neil de Kock and Hugh Vyvyan.

But Newcastle hit back and Jamie Noon's 77th-minute try secured their first away win in the league for 13 months.

Saracens, who rested Andy Farrell and had first-choice fly-half Glen Jackson on the bench, found themselves trailing inside the first two minutes as Newcastle scored a sublime try.

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The Falcons launched a sweeping attack which criss-crossed the pitch and ran through several phases before Flood, who produced a number of delightful touches, delayed his pass to perfection to put Tait through a gap just inside the Saracens half.

Tait, playing at full-back, still had ex-Springbok speedster Brent Russell to beat, but the England man pinned back his ears and scorched over in the corner for a marvellous score.

Jonny Wilkinson converted from wide out but his radar was not at its most accurate and he missed three first-half kicks.

Sarries got on the board through a Ross penalty but they were struggling to get into the game and conceded a second try after 22 minutes, just after losing Fabio Ongaro to the sin bin for trying to pull down a maul.

Newcastle, as they did all half, attacked using the full width of the field.

And when Flood found Brent Wilson just inside the touchline, the inside centre was on hand to take the flanker's inside pass and cross for the second try.

A penalty apiece from Ross and Wilkinson meant the Falcons led 15-6 at the break, but it could have been so much better for the visitors, who looked much the more threatening side.

Sarries brought on Jackson at the break in place of Ross and the hosts immediately looked more threatening, with Jackson trimming the gap to six points with a penalty.

They thought they had scored their first try just before the hour mark when Rodd Penney sliced through off Chris Jack's well-timed pass, but Tait pulled off a fine cover tackle and prevented the winger grounding the ball.

The home fans in the 17,223 crowd finally had a try to cheer when the Television Match Official confirmed De Kock's score after he squirmed over from Russell's pass.

It had been all Saracens since the break and they took the lead for the first time when former Newcastle captain Vyvyan finished off a sustained attack.

With only four points between the two sides, Newcastle were still very much in the hunt.

When they were awarded a penalty 40m out, they spurned a shot at goal in favour of kicking the penalty into the corner.

Saracens resisted the initial drive from the line-out but Noon powered over when the ball was switched into midfield.

Wilkinson landed the conversion and, although Saracens attacked relentlessly for the last two minutes, Newcastle held out to claim a thrilling victory.