ROB Andrew spoke of his pride in the Newcastle performance after it had become clear that inexperience would prevent them from making an impact in their first venture into the Heineken European Cup.

The going gets tougher when they visit Dublin to play Leinster on Friday, and without key men such as prop Marius Hurter and open side flanker Andy Mower, Andrew has little option but to treat these games as a massive learning experience for his talented youngsters.

"We gifted Newport 14 points in a very tight game, and with one more pass near the end we could have won 28-27," he said.

"It was a big occasion. The Newport fans made some noise and for our young players it was a difficult environment. It will be the same on Friday because we haven't played in Ireland before.

"The players are disappointed, but they know they could have won and that's a fantastic experience to have had."

Despite the scoreline, Andrew was correct to say the Falcons could have won as they were only six points adrift until a desperate attempt to run out of defence in the fourth minute of injury time handed Newport a converted try.

For most of the five minutes prior to that Newcastle had been on the attack and had Inga Tuigamala passed instead of hanging on they might have scored.

Perhaps there was too much pressure on Tuigamala and Pat Lam to provide a lead for the youngsters. Or perhaps advancing years and the battering they have taken has caught up with them as Lam currently looks nothing like the player who lit up Kingston Park four years ago.

The man making the impact in the back row was the 6ft 4in, 18st Tongan Epi Taione, but here again inexperience showed as he has only recently been converted from a winger.

He sparked Newcastle's best period after the first of Jonny Wilkinson's seven penalties had levelled the score at 3-3.

A quickly-taken penalty in midfield launched Taione on a storming run up the left and when the ball was moved right Tom May was stopped just short.

But a penalty followed, then Wilkinson kicked his third after another Taoine burst, and the fourth from wide on the right made it 12-3 after 28 minutes.

At this point all but the Welsh contingent in the 6,000 crowd had plenty of reason for excitement, but by half-time Newport had taken an 18-12 lead.

Hooker Billy Balshen showed up well in the loose, but the youngsters in the Newcastle front row were up against it in the scrums and when Gary Armstrong was penalised for feeding Newport moved the ball left for centre Jon Pritchard to score.

From the restart Armstrong burst away and it seemed Newcastle might score until May's long pass was intercepted and right winger Matt Mostyn was sent on a 60-metre run to the line.

Shane Howarth converted and added a penalty, and the classy fly half was on target again shortly after half-time after Taione hacked the ball straight to left winger Matthew Watkins, allowing Newport to mount a threatening attack.

With Ian Peel already on for James Isaacson at tight head, the Falcons made more changes with Richard Arnold going on for Rob Devonshire at open side and Hall Charlton replacing Armstrong, who was struggling with a calf injury.

Doddie Weir also went on for the impressive Hugh Vyvyan and with 15 minutes left the Falcons were back in it when Liam Botham burst on to a pass from Balshen, the visiting scrum half was sin-binned for deliberate off-side and Wilkinson kicked his fifth penalty.

But they immediately gave it back again as Taione caught the restart but lost the ball in contact, putting his side under pressure and they conceded a simple penalty to Howarth.

Wilkinson struck a beauty from 45 metres out on the left touchline, only for Howarth to reply again as Taione was penalised for not releasing.

He was then replaced by Jon Dunbar, and Andrew admitted afterwards it was a tough call whether or not to make that substitution earlier.

"We were chasing the game and Epi made two mistakes which gave it back to them when we were trying to stay within one score," he said. "But in that situation you are looking for someone who is capable of making the break which might just win the game."

Taione was virtually the only game breaker Newcastle had on the night as Newport, constantly flirting with off-side in the backs, mounted the sort of aggressive defence which is making it harder for the Falcons' vaunted young backs to create tries.

In fact, they have scored only two in the last four games and they will have to work at finding ways to put full back Dave Walder into space.