NEWCASTLE Falcons turned a stroll into a scramble before clinching their place in the Zurich Premiership play-offs yesterday.

After sitting out the heavy defeats at Leicester and Wasps, Jonny Wilkinson put club before country to the extent that his ferocious tackling created a late injury scare.

He left the field looking dazed in the 80th minute, but Rob Andrew said later he was sure Wilkinson would be fit to face France at Twickenham on Saturday.

"It's a muscular thing in his neck," said the Director of Rugby. "It's something we've had to deal with for two or three years.

"His spinal column is quite narrow and when he gets a big hit he gets a spasm around his neck.

"He'll probably go down to join the England squad tonight but he might not train until Wednesday. A couple of days' rest should see him right."

Andrew was not impressed with the second half display or with the performance of Gloucester referee Chris Wright.

The penalty count went heavily against Falcons, who scored all their points from six converted tries, while Irish fly half Barry Everitt landed six penalties.

The visitors scored a try after 23 seconds, but failed to touch down again until the 58th minute.

Newcastle were down to 14 men at the time as flanker Richard Arnold had been sin-binned yet again.

It seemed to be another example, however, of referees singling him out as his offence was instinctively to catch an Irish pass when coming back from an off-side position.

When an Irish forward did something almost identical, Mr Wright judged it to be accidental off-side and awarded a scrum.

"He is one of our top referees but he gave one of the most inconsistent performances I have seen this season," said Andrew. "It's inconsistency like that which drives coaches mad.

"But that's no excuse for our performance. We went from looking like world beaters towards the end of the first half to being second raters. We took our foot off the gas and got complacent, and we nearly got what we deserved.

"We should have won by 60 points, but instead of burying them we stopped and found it very difficult to turn it round again."

Wilkinson converted all five of Falcons' first half tries from wide on the left and when he also converted the sixth five minutes after the interval the lead was 42-17.

Even though winger Epi Taione, a half-time replacement for Gareth Maclure, put in some barnstorming runs Newcastle could not add to their tally.

With the gap down to ten points with ten minutes left they had to hang on, and Everitt's sixth penalty in the fifth minute of injury time gave the Irish a bonus point.

Without that Newcastle would have been certain of finishing no lower than seventh, but they now need at least one bonus point from their matches at Rotherham and Saracens to be certain of avoiding eighth place.

Eighth earns a trip to champions Leicester in the play-offs and Irish began as though they, too, are anxious to avoid that.

It was breathless stuff in the first 13 minutes as every restart seemed to bring a score, taking the score to 21-11.

Both sides' inability to deal with high, hanging kick-offs contributed to this, Newcastle setting the tone as the visitors sent hooker Richard Kirke over in the left corner for the first minute try.

Everitt then knocked on under his own posts and Falcons recycled the ball three times for Wilkinson to jink over.

Everitt landed his first penalty then a break by Tom May put Michael Stephenson away and the speedy winger did well to squeeze in at the corner.

The pattern was repeated as Everitt kicked two more penalties either side of a try for Falcons' acting captain Hugh Vyvyan, who scored when Marius Hurter burst through a line-out.

Leading 21-17, Newcastle effectively settled the match with three converted tries without reply.

A long pass from Wilkinson sent David Walder over, then hooker Ross Nesdale was driven over from a line-out shortly before he won a vital strike against the head with Falcons under pressure.

Another line-out drive ended with Gary Armstrong burrowing over for Falcon's solitary second half score, and at that point a rout looked on the cards.

But a mixture of complacency and carelessness crept in, and England must hope that Wilkinson's heroic defence does not prove costly.