Irish cling on to withstand Falcons fightback

London Irish held on to record a narrow 22-21 Premiership victory over Newcastle before a crowd of over 15,000 at the Madejski Stadium.



Irish secured an early 14-0 lead which the Falcons could not peg back, despite the visitors totally controlling the second half and the home side losing three players to the sin-bin.



Halani Aulika, Scott Steele and Andrew Fenby scored the tries for the hosts with Shane Geraghty converting two.

Chris Noakes kicked a late penalty to seal victory.



Replacement, Chris Harris and Adam Powell, scored Newcastle's tries with Tom Catterick adding three penal…