Premiership: Newcastle 15-13 Sale - Toby Flood late try snatches win for Falcons

Former England fly-half Toby Flood ensured Newcastle made it back-to-back wins in the Premiership

Former England fly-half Toby Flood's try two minutes into added time saw Newcastle snatch victory against Sale.

The 35-year-old dotted down from scrum-half Michael Young's clever kick into space as Falcons made it two wins from two on their Premiership return.

Sale thought they had done enough when Cobus Wiese scored a try to put them 13-10 ahead with eight minutes left.

Sean Robinson had earlier helped Newcastle take a 10-0 lead at half-time with a try from close range.

Before Flood's match-winning moment, it was largely a forgettable game with both sides struggling to get into a rhythm or maintain discipline.

Long, monotonous kicking exchanges punctuated both halves and Sale punished themselves by conceding countless penalties and also losing number eight Dan du Preez to the sin bin moments before Robinson scored the first try.

AJ MacGinty kicked Sharks back into contention early in the second half with two penalties before Wiese had the power to go over after Sam James' burst down the right wing to put them ahead.

That looked like being the decisive score but Falcons first kicked deep to the corner after winning a penalty from the restart.

They then kept their composure even with a couple of penalty advantages inside the 22 to find space behind Sale's defence from Young's kick over the top that allowed Flood to sneak in for the win.

Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards told BBC Newcastle:

"Sale are renowned as one of the most physical sides in the competition and I thought we matched them in that department and if you do that, you never know what happens after.

"I'm really pleased with the character we've shown so far when you consider we've been paired with three of the top five sides from last season.

"To come away with two wins out of two so far, I think everyone is delighted.

"But again, it's back to the drawing board as we've got another big game coming up next week and I think we'll all put this behind ourselves quite quickly."

Sale director of rugby Steve Diamond:

"The first-half performance by us was poor really. Second half we clicked it up a bit and were able to keep the ball.

"But then we just went into panic mode in the last couple of minutes.

"I thought we'd done enough in the second half, we probably didn't deserve to win it, but credit to Newcastle.

"They're a very dogged side and they got the result in the end.

"We've just got to relax a little bit, but we seem to want to give sides a leg up each week with yellow cards and conceding needless penalties."

Newcastle: Penny; Radwan, Burrell, Flood, Stevenson; Connon, Young (capt); Davison, McGuigan, Mulipola, Peterson, Fuser, Robinson, Collett, Graham.

Replacements: Blamire, Brocklebank, Tampin, Barry, Basham, Stuart, Hodgson, Lucock.

Sale: James; Solomona, James, Janse van Rensburg, Hammersley; MacGinty, De Klerk; Morozov, van der Merwe, Oosthuizen, Wiese, Phillips, J-L du Preez, Curry (capt), D du Preez.

Replacements: Langdon, Rodd, Cooper-Woolley, Postlethwaite, Dugdale, Cliff, R du Preez, Yarde.

Sin bin: D du Preez (34 mins).

Referee: Wayne Barnes (RFU).