London Irish 19 Newcastle Falcons 0

Newcastle's Director of Rugby John Fletcher conceded that his team were lucky to lose by only 19 points at London Irish yesterday.

While the Falcons were without their two first-choice fly halves, Shane Geraghty returned from the hamstring injury which wrecked his hopes of going to the World Cup to inspire London Irish.

The talented 21-year-old provided the spark Irish lacked in last weekend's opening-day defeat by Harlequins.

Fletcher said: ''They comprehensively beat us and deserved the win. We were lucky it was only 19.''

He complimented Irish on having ''the best line-out in the league'' and admitted: ''That was a disappointing performance, especially in the first half.

''We let them get into the lead then they closed the game out.

''It isn't a lack of effort, it's a lack of composure and if we play like that against Harlequins next week they will beat us.

''We have two massive home matches coming up and it's important that we get something from them.''

Irish's boss Brian Smith praised his ''outstanding'' pack but rued a missed opportunity to collect a bonus point.

Smith said: ''After coming in with two tries at half-time, we thought there might have been the chance to get a four-try bonus point.

''I thought it was an outstanding forward performance, they really did the job on Newcastle in the scrum and the line-out.

''But I wouldn't think too many of the backs were happy with that performance. Our boys are better than that and we expect more from them.''

Smith was delighted to have Geraghty and new club captain Bob Casey back in the side after injury.

Smith revealed that Geraghty's problem hamstring had tightened up at half-time, but explained: ''We are hoping he will be all right for next week.''

Geraghty's beautifully-executed sidestep split the visiting defence open to produce the opening try in the 18th minute.

Even though centre Jeremy Staunton was stopped short when he tried to go it alone, despite having winger Tomas De Vedia outside him, the Irish pack propelled prop Faan Rautenbach over for the opening try.

Scrum-half Paul Hodgson scored an opportunist second in the 32nd minute, taking the ball from the scrum and kicking over the head of his opposite number, James Grindal, before diving on the bouncing ball.

With Staunton landing only two penalties from five first-half kicking attempts, Irish were restricted to a 16-0 half-time lead.

But it was enough to ensure they took no chances with Geraghty, who was withdrawn in the 44th minute.

Newcastle struggled to mount a worthwhile attack and when they did have the chance of an opening, they invariably wasted it with poor handling.

Newcastle threatened briefly at the end of the first half. Spurning the chance of an easy penalty kick, fly-half Steve Jones failed to get the ball anywhere near the corner with his touch kick, and they then lost the resulting line-out.

Their next attack petered out when prop Joe McDonnell became involved in the three-quarter move and spilled the ball.