Premiership: London Irish 15-20 Newcastle

Newcastle winger Vereniki Goneva scored two tries against London Irish in September

Newcastle Falcons completed a perfect December run by consigning the Premiership's bottom side London Irish to an 11th straight league defeat.

Two tries from Alex Tait and Vereniki Goneva's touchdown after Mike Coman was sin-binned for London Irish put Newcastle 20-9 up at the break.

Greig Tonks, who landed three of three penalties before the break, kicked the only points of a tense second-half.

He slotted his fifth kick with three minutes left, but it was not enough.

A losing bonus point was enough to keep them within 10 points of nearest rivals Worcester at the bottom of the table, with the Warriors snatching a try-scoring bonus point in the defeat by Saracens on Saturday.

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After Tonks and Flood traded early penalties, Tait edged Newcastle ahead for the first time in the 22nd minute, pouncing on a loose ball after a defensive kick was charged down.

The winger added a second soon after and the Exiles' defence buckled a third time just before the break, with Goneva diving over in the corner immediately after Coman was sin-binned.

Both sides absorbed long spells of pressure after the interval, with Irish able to take some solace in defeat after keeping Newcastle, who moved to fifth in the table with their fifth straight win in all competitions, scoreless after the break.

London Irish director of rugby Nick Kennedy told BBC Radio Berkshire:

"We were much improved from last week. I'm pleased with the way the boys came out and went into the second half.

"What let us down were crucial errors at crucial times. A missed tackle on Vereniki Goneva, a missed tackle on Sonatane Takulua, a missed tackle on Kyle Cooper and they end up making big line breaks and scoring off them.

"It's still that 80 minutes of concentration and making sure we make all our tackles and not letting soft line breaks come through us.

"We were in the game in the last minutes, but we need to get our detail right and look after the ball.

"Premiership games are very close, but we need to nail out those Championship minutes at the end."

Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards said:

"It's been quite a disruptive week. We were due to fly down on Friday and the plane got cancelled so we had to bus it down and seven hours on the bus is not ideal prep for a game like this.

"We lacked a bit of accuracy and we talked about that going into the game that we are accurate with everything that we do.

"But saying that, we took our tries well, the charge down for Tait's first try and then the cross-kick."

London Irish: Tonks; Cokanasiga, Fowlie, Williams, Lewington; Marshall, Steele; Reid, Fainga'a, Du Plessis, Van der Merwe, Paulo, Coman (capt), Northcote-Green, Treviranus.

Replacements: Woolstencroft, Franks, Hoskins, De Chaves, Cowan, Meehan, Brophy Clews, Tikoirotuma.

Yellow Card: Mike Coman

Newcastle: Hammersley; Tait, Harris, Socino, Goneva; Flood, Takulua; Vickers, Cooper, Welsh, Green, Robinson, M Wilson (capt), Graham, Latu.

Replacements: Sowrey, Lockwood, S Wilson, Olmstead, Welch, Young, Hodgson, Matavesi.

Referee: Tom Foley (RFU).