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Newcastle Falcons pulled out the biggest performance of their season to beat London Irish 15-11 at The Madejski Stadium.

The Falcons had only won twice all season going into the match, but a flawless kicking display by Jimmy Gopperth put a serious dent in Irish's hopes of topping the Guinness Premiership table.

Newcastle won the battle of discipline in a tightly-contested affair in Reading, summed up by the last attack of the game when Chris Malone kicked the ball dead as Irish wasted the chance of one last line-out.

The Falcons' first half performance was a lesson in the art of clever, clinical rugby.

Withstanding some early fireworks from Irish at the breakdown, the visitors adapted to the referee far quicker than their hosts, carefully accumulating penalty after penalty in a methodical opening 45 minutes.

Crucial to the game plan was Gopperth, who clearly made sure he had brought his kicking boots to The Madejski Stadium, kicking four from four in an impressive first half.

Irish created and wasted the opening two chances for points, Ryan Lamb lacking the distance to convert from just inside his own half.

Gopperth by contrast was deadly, and he was being partnered well at half back by Micky Thomas, who never hesitated in supplying quick ball to boost his international credentials.

Three Gopperth penalties had Newcastle 9-0 up before Lamb finally found some accuracy, but that nine-point lead was restored on the stroke of the interval as Irish were sent back to the changing rooms scratching their heads.

Irish came out flying at the start of the second, no doubt reacting to a rollicking from their coach, but an early drop goal was all they could show for a lack of imagination with ball in hand.

The drop kick did reduce the deficit to six points though, and that soon got chiselled down to one when Chris Hala'ufia capitalised on slick set-piece ball at the line-out to burst over for the game's only try.

The conversion was missed though, and that was all the incentive Newcastle needed to hang on for victory, aided by a late Gopperth penalty for a 15-11 final score.

Victory leaves Irish trailing Saracens by six points after the league leaders saw off Wasps 22-6 at Vicarage Road.

The game enjoyed a tight opening as Derick Hougaard and Dave Walder exchanged kicks, before Schalk Brits powered Saracens into a 10-3 lead on 11 minutes.

Hougaard and Walder exchanged penalties again to move the scores onto 13-6 at half time, but that would be as close as Wasps would get.

After an early missed penalty by Walder six minutes into the second period, Hougaard squeezed the life out of Sarries' opponents with two penalties and a drop goal to extend their lead at the top.

Shock of the day nearly came from Headingley Carnegie, where Leeds so nearly stunned Sale Sharks before losing 17-24 to remain bottom of the Guinness Premiership table.

The Tykes shocked Wasps a few weeks back, and they roared out of the blocks on Sunday, Lee Blackett needing just two minutes to hand the home side a converted 7-0 lead.

Sale were stunned, but Charlie Hodgson appeared to have settled them down with a calmly taken penalty for 7-3.

Leeds were having none of it though, Sisa Koyamaibole forced into the sin-bin for illegal play, and on the stroke of the interval Scott Barrow scythed through for a 14-3 half time lead.

That lead got stretched to 17-3 by Ceiron Thomas six minutes into the second half, but a double sin-binning of Leeds' Calum Clark and Sale's Marc Jones changed the direction of the contest.

With both players off the pitch, Ben Cohen made use of the extra space to reduce the deficit to seven, before Richard Wrigglesworth levelled things up with Sale's second try with 15 minutes remaining.

Nerves oozed out of the home crowd, and with five minutes left their fears were realised as Carl Fearns crossed the whitewash, allowing Sale to leap away from the drop zone up to seventh.

Ben Blackmore / Eurosport