NEWCASTLE'S David Walder had just as much right as Sale's Charlie Hodgson to set an England scoring record with 44 points against Romania.

That was the view of Rob Andrew after watching his fly-half kick the Falcons to a second successive dramatic win, which kept them in second place in the Zurich Premiership yesterday.

"David is just as good a player as Charlie Hodgson," said the man who is as qualified as anyone to judge England No 10s.

"The Romania match was a waste of time and didn't prove anything. You could have scored points against them," he added to the Press in general.

When Jonny Wilkinson was with the Lions, Walder was England's fly half on their summer tour of North America but has suddenly found himself leapfrogged by another former Durham University man.

"Charlie has had a great start to the season and did really well against Romania, so fair play to him," said Walder, who scored 23 points against Wasps last week. "I just have to keep going and try to force my way back in.

"I was very happy with my kicking today. I let myself down in the home match against Leeds, which was my first run at No 10 this season. But I have worked hard at it since then."

Four of Walder's six penalties were from around 50 metres and his only miss came in injury time, when he hit the right upright from the halfway line.

Once he had regained the lead for Newcastle with 13 minutes left they never looked like surrendering it, but they had been outplayed during the middle of the match.

An early 6-0 lead became a 13-6 deficit before Walder kicked his third penalty in first half stoppage time.

The Gloucester forwards piled on the pressure on the resumption. After destroying the Falcons' scrum they twice opted for scrums when awarded kickable penalties.

Newcastle also got into a tangle near their own line through ill-advised handling, but they dug deep to keep Gloucester out and it was a big turning point when a huge Walder punt relieved ten minutes of pressure.

When he kicked a penalty after 56 minutes the one-point gap was not a fair reflection of the game. But Newcastle dominated the last 20 minutes.

Among the replacements they sent on was Epi Taione, who had driven up from Cardiff yesterday morning after playing on the wing for Tonga against Wales.

"We had five internationals missing, plus Liam Botham with flu, and several others were feeling under the weather," revealed Andrew.

"But there is great character in the side, as we showed at Wasps last week.

"We would like to play as we did against Toulouse every week, but in games like this you have to find some core strength and dig very deep.

"The game didn't have any fluidity. They stopped us winning quick ball, sometimes legally sometimes not."

Walder's opposite number, Ludovic Mercier, kicked three penalties and converted the game's only try. But he was also off target with three penalties, while Henry Paul missed one.

With little space available for midfield creativity, Paul did not have the chance to shine, although he usually looked very comfortable on the ball.

Inga Tuigamala looked Newcastle's biggest threat in attack, although his reluctance to stay on the wing once allowed Gloucester to break out.

They scored the only try with the score at 6-6 after 18 minutes. Italian prop Federico Pucciarellio appeared at centre and punched a hole in the home defence before flanker Jake Boer took the ball on and scrum half Andy Gomarsall raced 20 metres to the line.

Lock Hugh Vyvyan was again outstanding for the Falcons and big flanker Jon Dunbar had some impact, although attempts to batter round the fringes were generally repelled by Gloucester's impressive back row.

Newcastle gave a fair amount of ball to Gareth Maclure on the left wing, but never with any space in which to work.

Their best chance of a try came late in the first half when Tuigamala made a half break in the centre and Jamie Noon was forced into touch in the right corner. Newcastle's problems early in the second half were largely of their own making after allowing Gomarsall to escape on a 50-metre run.

Things looked bleak when Richard Arnold was replaced after 46 minutes. But his replacement, Rob Devonshire, did equally well.

Taione went on with 15 minutes left, intially in the back row before switching to the wing when Phil Dowson went on. All the changes worked well and the Falcons looked the more likely side to score in the last ten minutes