Premiership: London Welsh 3-23 Newcastle Falcons

Powell's try against London Welsh was his first for the season

Newcastle Falcons beat fellow relegation candidates London Welsh at the Kassam Stadium to move eight points clear of the Premiership's bottom side.

Adam Powell and Mark Wilson tries and two Juan Pablo Socino penalties put Newcastle 16-3 up at the break.

The Exiles' only response came from the boot of Olly Barkley.

Ruki Tipuna went in for Newcastle's third try before Wilson was sin-binned, but Welsh failed to make the most of the one-man advantage late on.

After ending a 20-match losing streak with victory against Exeter Chiefs six days earlier, Newcastle recorded successive wins for the first time in more than a year.

It is the first time since winning promotion back to the top flight that London Welsh have not conceded more than 40 points. They have a solitary bonus point from their opening six matches.

Socino and Barkley traded penalties before Powell went over for the first try of the match, linking up with Wilson after Dom Barrow had done well to breach the home side's defence.

Argentine fly-half Socino, who added a second kick before hitting the post with a straightforward penalty, looked to have sent Sinoti Sinoti in for a try with a neat chip kick.

However, television replays showed the Newcastle winger was beaten to the ball by Exiles hooker Nathan Morris.

Moments before the break, Newcastle went over for a deserved second try, with Powell and Sinoti combining well before Wilson crashed over the line.

While the hosts played patiently in attack and pinned the Falcons back for long periods after the break, Newcastle stubbornly kept the Exiles at bay.

Newcastle were more ruthless at the other end as Sinoti and Wilson were again involved in the lead-up play to allow Tipuna to touch down unchallenged. Clegg added the extras to compete a comfortable win.

London Welsh head coach Justin Burnell: "I don't think the league was decided today, there are still 16 games to go and we've got spirit.

"Every loss is disappointing but this was a vast improvement from us after last week's performance at Harlequins.

"We played for 80 minutes this week but we didn't capitalise on our possession and it's enormously frustrating how easily we switch off.

"It's a massive learning curve for us and it is crucial for us to look at the processes to enable us to turn pressure into points."

Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards: "Last week's win against Exeter was the most important one as that result had been coming for some time.

"We have been playing with ambition but we needed to win a game.

"I'm delighted for the boys today as we delivered. However we lacked a bit of accuracy at times in the first half and dropped away a bit more in the second half.

"But our defence was excellent which is good as it's normally the weakest part of our game."

London Welsh: Jewell; Stegmann, Reynolds, May (capt), Scott; Barkley, Weepu; Henn, Morris, Vea; Corker, Down; Browne Thorpe, Hala'ufia.

Replacements: Vella, Cahill, Gilding, Schofield, Pienaar, Lewis, Roberts, Crane.

Newcastle: Tait; Sinoti, Tiesi, Powell, Cato; Socino, Tipuna; Brookes, Lawson, S. Wilson; Green, Barrow; M. Wilson, Welch (capt), Hogg.

Replacements: Hawkins, Rogers, Tomaszczyk, Furno, Mayhew, Blair, Clegg, Catterick.

Attendance: 2,776

Referee: Wayne Barnes (RFU)