Newcastle (3) 12 Pens: Gopperth 4 London Irish (12) 12 Tries: Stowers, Armitage Cons: Homer
Gopperth scored all Falcons' points but was left to rue early misses
Jimmy Gopperth kicked Newcastle to a Premiership draw against London Irish.
Samoan George Stowers finished off a tight Irish drive by edging over the line for a 22nd-minute lead.
Four minutes later, England's Steffon Armitage touched down after more good work from the Exiles' pack before Tom Homer converted to make it 12-0.
But Gopperth atoned for two earlier misses, landing four penalties, three in the second half, to earn Falcons two points and dent Irish play-off hopes.
New Zealander Gopperth wasted two penalty chances during the dour opening exchanges before the deadlock was broken by Stowers.
A Peter Hewat chip eventually resulted in a line-out, and from the resulting drive Stowers forced his way over for the lead.
Full-back Homer, though, could not convert the extras from a difficult angle.
Another powerful drive, initially instigated by a Chris Malone up-and-under, saw Armitage burrow his way over.
And this time Homer made no mistake with the conversion to put the visitors 12-0 in the ascendancy.
Gopperth finally found his penalty-kicking range in the 35th minute to keep his side in touch at half-time.
The Falcons' front row were excellent throughout the second half, and their good work provided Gopperth with three more penalty opportunities in the 45th, 54th and 66th minutes - all of which he converted to level the scores.
Newcastle thought they had won it when full-back Alex Tait raced over from scrum-half Micky Young's pass, but referee Rob Debney correctly ruled that the offload had gone forward.
Newcastle director of rugby Steve Bates: "I thought it was an exciting and physical battle and we may have let that just slip in the second half.
"I am disappointed we didn't win as we had enough possession and territory but we have got to take a lot of positives, we have played two of the top four sides in the country in the last two weeks (Northampton and London Irish) and been really competitive.
"There are things we need to work on but generally speaking I think we can cope with anybody in this league."
London Irish head coach Toby Booth:
"It was probably a fair result as we were dominant for one half and so were they," he said.
"We had the upper hand line-out wise and they had the upper hand scrum wise and it often goes like that.
"The disappointing thing for us is we let go a 12-3 lead, but you have to give people credit for that.
"The conditions were very tough out there, the pitch isn't great and they won the kicking game in the second half and we couldn't get out."
Newcastle: A. Tait, Williams, Bobo, Tu'ipulotu, Amesbury, Gopperth, Young, Golding, Vickers, Hayman, Hudson, Swinson, B. Wilson, Welch, Browne. Replacements: Vickerman for Amesbury (24), Sorenson for Welch (69), Afu for Browne (54). Not Used: Walker, Brooks, Shiels, Charlton, Miller.
London Irish: Homer, Ojo, Seveali'i, Mapusua, Hewat, Malone, Hodgson, Dermody, Paice, Ion, Roche, Casey, Thorpe, S. Armitage, Stowers. Replacements: Lamb for Malone (54), Buckland for Paice (60), Rautenbach for Ion (45), Perry for Casey (69), Gibson for Thorpe (54). Not Used: Murphy, Rudd, Catt.
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