George Ford inspires Leicester Tigers to beat Newcastle Falcons

Newcastle Falcons 13 Leicester Tigers 30: Jonny May's late try ensured victory

Ford kicked 15 points in total for the Tigers (Getty)

Three second-half penalties from George Ford and a late Jonny May try finally ended Newcastle's resistance as Leicester Tigers beat the Falcons 30-13 in front of a sell-out 10,100 crowd at Kingston Park.

Ford clocked up 15 points, converting all three of the Tigers tries by Telusa Veainu, Ben Youngs and May and also kicked three penalties after the Falcons had battled their way back into the game.

The Tigers looked set for a comfortable half-time lead after scoring two tries in the space of seven minutes with Veainu scoring a cracker and making it easy for Youngs to add the second and Ford converting both to make it 14-3.

But Newcastle hit back right on half-time through a Vereniki Goneva try and with Toby Flood converting and kicking a penalty it was 14-10 at the break.

May's late try sealed the win (Getty)

Both sides showed early intent Flood kicking a penalty to the corner to set up an attacking line-out and Ford doing the same for Leicester.

But Newcastle made a mess of their line-out while the Tigers ruthlessly did not with slick passing setting up Veainu to score a quite breathtaking try standing up a bewildered Falcons defence with a weaving run.

Ford converted and despite a 14th-minute penalty from Flood the Falcons slipped further behind when Veainu stepped inside the tackle again and popped the ball up for the simplest of tries for Ben Youngs, converted by Ford in the 18th minute and the Tigers led 14-3.

Newcastle were struggling with the pace of the game but their real problem was the number of high-tackle penalties they were conceding while their first-up tackling was also suspect.

Ford led the second-half charge (Getty)

The Tigers were clearly in control with Newcastle unable to retain the ball for any length of time, but they finally got it right with less than a minute from half-time with the ball moved along the line and back inside for Mathew Tait to swap passes with Goneva and the big winger scored easily, Flood converting for 14-10 at the break.

A Flood penalty two minutes into the second half made it 14-13 and it was anybody's game with a ferocious battle raging over the ball at the breakdown.

Ironically, it was a simple offside behind the scrum that led to a 50-metre penalty from Ford to edge the Tigers 17-13 ahead in the 52nd minute and the England fly-half was on target again in 65th and 69th minutes when Newcastle folded at the scrum and transgressed with another high tackle.

At 23-13 it looked enough for a Tigers victory and May charged over in the corner with Ford converting to wrap it up.