Va'aiga Tuigamala stepped off the replacements bench to steer Newcastle to a 34-19 victory over bottom club Rotherham at Kingston Park.

Rotherham, yet to register a win in their first season in the Premiership, led 19-17 going into the last quarter.

But Tuigamala came on for Scotland captain John Leslie to inspire a late flourish that brought tries for the Falcons by Liam Botham and Jim Jenner.

``John is a very talented player but sometimes he tries to force the ball out of tackle situations when the pass isn't on,'' said Newcastle's director of rugby, Rob Andrew.

``When he reads it right it is devastating but sometimes he just hands the ball to the opposition.

``All you are doing is making your team-mates work harder to get the ball back.

``The style we play, when we keep the ball alive, it is very difficult to stop us and that is what Va'aiga helped us to do when he came on.

``The second-half performance was probably as well as we have played all season.''

Leslie's first-half score and Andrew Mower's fine effort, when he weaved his way through the Rotherham defence, helped Newcastle collect a useful bonus point.

``We are a young side and sometimes we try to push the extra pass when we would be better to take the tackle,'' said Mower, a clear man of the match winner.

``Once we got their forwards running around a bit they didn't look too sharp.

``We have had five games together and have improved with every one. Hopefully, we can start stringing some wins together.''

If winless Rotherham were looking for a way out of a run which has seen them become marooned at the foot of the table, they need only look at the form of the respective goal-kickers.

While Jonny Wilkinson was landing six from seven attempts for Newcastle - his only failure an ambitious penalty shot from inside his own half - Rotherham fly-half Mike Umaga missed two penalties and a conversion and turned down the opportunity to kick on at least four occasions when the visitors elected to punt for touch.

``We know Mike is not kicking well,'' said Rotherham coach Jim Kilfoyle. ``But not everyone has a Jonny Wilkinson.

``At the moment, we are not good enough. We are nearly there but not quite.

``If someone had told us two years ago that we would be playing Gloucester, Leicester and Newcastle within a week, we would have signed about 45 new players to cope.

``We wilted in the last 10 minutes but that is understandable. Now we will
have a day off, increase the technical training and start again.''

Scoring sequence

10 mins Leslie try/Wilkinson con 7-0
29 mins Naylor try/Umaga con 7-7
32 mins Umaga try/Umaga con 7-14
40 mins Wilkinson pen 10-14

half-time 10-14

56 mins Mower try/Wilkinson con 17-14
61 mins Garnett try 17-19
63 mins Botham try/Wilkinson con 24-19
75 mins Jenner try/Wilkinson con 31-19
79 mins Wilkinson pen 34-19

full-time 34-19

Newcastle - tries: Leslie, Mower, Botham, Jenner; cons: Wilkinson 4; pens: Wilkinson 2

Rotherham