JONNY Wilkinson's deputy, David Walder, followed his 29 points against Cross Keys two weeks ago with 24 yesterday as the Falcons stayed on course for the European Shield quarter-finals.

In unpleasant conditions at Kingston Park they had no chance of repeating the free-flowing rugby which brought15 tries against Cross Keys, but they adapted well after going 12-0 down in ten minutes.

They had three players sin-binned, but Director of Rugby Rob Andrew said: "I don't think we deserved any of them.

"I don't know why Gary Armstrong got his yellow card, Epi Taione went off for the least harmful of six high tackles in the match and George Graham just got involved in a bit of a scuffle."

He was speaking tongue-in-cheek about Graham as the infuriated Scottish prop flailed away comically as he pursued the more athletic visiting No 8 in an attempt to land a retaliatory punch.

While fly half Walder kicked six penalties and converted the three tries, skipper Doddie Weir also played a key part in inspiring the Falcons' fightback.

"It was a bit alien to how we want to play," said Andrew. "But I thought we played the conditions, the referee and the opposition really well in the second half.

"Saturday's results went our way and we are now in a very good position for a home quarter-final."

Newcastle will have to wait until January 14 to secure that by avenging their opening defeat in Italy by Treviso, who beat Cross Keys 31-3 on Saturday and have a much inferior points difference to Falcons.

Walder missed an early penalty and made a hash of two touch kicks as Newcastle faced the wind.

Their early attempts to batter round the fringes met with strong French resistance and Bordeaux suddenly scored two good tries.

Liam Botham was at fault for the first when he came in off his wing and the visitors used the overlap to score in the left corner through full back Jean-Marc Souverbie.

A chip to the other corner then allowed right winger Ludovic Valbon to touch down, but after the conversion Bordeaux managed only a penalty in reply to Falcons' 39 points.

The fightback started after Weir gave Walder some words of encouragement and he confidently rifled a penalty into the corner.

Ross Beattie won the line-out, but Newcastle's drive for the line was repelled, only for Bordeaux to be penalised.

The quickly-taken penalty led to a series of drives for the line, which ended with Weir taking a short pass from Armstrong to go under the posts.

Penalties were exchanged either side of the sin-binning of Graham and Bordeaux No 8 Paul Berthe, making it 15-10 to the visitors at half-time.

Within six minutes of the restart Walder had kicked three penalties to put the Falcons ahead and after that there were never any worries for the crowd of 2,867, who could resort to light-hearted questioning of the Italian referee's antics.

A brilliant run by full back Michael Stephenson led to a penalty try when Walder was held before receiving what would have been a scoring pass.

The final try came five minutes from time when Hugh Vyvyan won a line-out and hooker Ross Nesdale was driven over.

"We've got a couple of Tetley's Cup games coming up and we're still in every competition," said Weir.

"Touch wood, we've been lucky with injuries so far. We're going to lose a few players on international duty over the next few weeks, but we've now got the strength in depth to keep things going."

Newcastle next visit Rosslyn Park in the fourth round of the cup