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Newcastle edged to a 19-17 victory against Sale Sharks on Friday
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Sinoti Sinoti’s try combined with five points from Mike Delany gave the hosts a 10-3 lead at half-time
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Former All Black Delany slotted three further penalties to secure the win
Newcastle won on the opening day of the Aviva Premiership for the first time in nine year’s as they edged to a narrow 19-17 win against Sale Sharks at Kingston Park on Friday evening.
The Falcons were looking for payback after losing out to the Sharks 15-21 when these two met in the north-east for the final game of the 2015/16 Aviva Premiership season.
Former All Black Mike Delany and USA international AJ MacGinty traded penalties for the only points of the opening quarter of the match. Sinoti Sinoti then powered over for the only try of the first half for the hosts with Delany got the conversion to give Newcastle a 10-3 lead going into half-time.
Delany then slotted a penalty early in the second half but Johnny Leota crashed through for Sale’s first try minutes later and Dan Mugford got the conversion.
The Newcastle fly-half responded with two successive penalties to open up another lead for the home side but Byron McGuigan turned the game on its head with a late try for the visitors, which Mugford followed with another conversion to put home supporters back on the edge of their seats. However, it was too little too late from the visitors as Newcastle went on to win 19-17.
Newcastle: Mike Delany
Newcastle: 15 Simon Hammersley, 14 Vereniki Goneva, 13 Chris Harris, 12 Juan Pablo Socino, 11 Sinoti Sinoti, 10 Mike Delany, 9 Sonatane Takulua, 8 Mark Wilson, 7 Will Welch (c), 6 Evan Olmstead, 5 Will Witty, 4 Calum Green, 3 Taione Vea, 2 Scott Lawson, 1 Jon Welsh
Replacements: 16 Ben Sowrey, 17 Alex Rogers, 18 Sam Lockwood, 19 Opeti Fonua, 20 Callum Chick, 21 Sam Egerton, 22 Joel Hodgson, 23 Dominic Waldouck
Sale: 15 Byron McGuigan, 14 Will Addison, 13 Sam James, 12 Johnny Leota, 11 Nev Edwards, 10 AJ MacGinty, 9 Mike Phillips, 8 Laurence Pearce, 7 TJ Ioane, 6 Josh Beaumont (c), 5 Andrei Ostrikov, 4 Bryn Evans, 3 Halani Aulika, 2 Rob Webber, 1 Eifion Lewis-Roberts
Replacements: 16 Neil Briggs, 17 James Flynn, 18 Kieran Longbottom, 19 Jonathan Mills, 20 Magnus Lund, 21 David Seymour, 22 James Mitchell, 23 Dan Mugford
Date: Friday, September 2
Venue: Kingston Park
Kick-off: 20:00 BST (19:00 GMT)
Referee: Greg Garner
Assistant Referees: John Meredith, Wayne Falla
TMO: Trevor Fisher