Wayward Walder is hit with Andrew

Newcastle kept manager Rob Andrew happy yesterday after beating Leeds 19 -8 at Kingston Park to stay in touch with the Zurich Premiership leaders.

The loss of Jonny Wilkinson, who had been released for England duty, resulted in Andrew moving David Walder up to No.10 and handing Dave Richardson his home Premiership debut.

Walder missed three penalties and two conversions, but Andrew said: 'I thought he had one of his best games at fly half, kicking apart.

'He's disappointed with that, but he controlled things well and Dave Richardson had a very good home debut in difficult conditions.

'We told the players before the game just to concentrate on getting the four points and, given the wet conditions, they did well.

'We could have been more clinical in certain areas but it was a comfortable win and had David kicked his goals it would have been over 10 minutes into the second half.

'We're reasonably happy with a record of 4-1-1 and where we are.

We're in touch with the top of the table going into a very difficult November, when we will be losing players to international calls.'

Newcastle led 8-0 at half time. Hall Charlton's break from the ruck set up Stuart Grimes for a try.

Almost on half time Walder kicked a penalty and then added a second after the break when Epi Taione blasted down the right wing.

The England cap then slotted a superb drop goal but missed three kickable penalties as Newcastle stepped up the pace.

They were worrying misses but the Falcons were in the driving seat and they should have made a lot more of another snappy Charlton break but the support was too slow in arriving.

Leeds had Gavin Kerr sin-binned for preventing the ball being released at a ruck, but they could still have cut three points off the lead when Dan Parks tried a snap drop goal that flew wide.

Inga Tuigamala and Taione combined to set up good ball and Tom May linked with Walder to send in Mike Stephenson for a 69th minute try.

Eddie Jones crashed over from a line-out drive near the end to make it 19-8, but it was too little to late.