Jonny Wilkinson booted Newcastle to another crucial 13-10 Heineken Cup triumph, against Edinburgh at Murrayfield.

Edinburgh had held the lead until the dying seconds, But when supersub Wilkinson's converted Mike Stephenson's dramatic try, the Falcons victory was assured.

A tough opening period saw two heavyweight packs sizing each other up, and both seemed aware of each others strengths after their round 3 meeting last weekend.

And it was the Gunners who broke the deadlock with a well-worked set-piece try. International scrum-half Mikey Blair made the initial burst before sending Scotland Under-21s captain David Callam cruising in under the crossbar to give Chris Paterson the simplest of conversions.

Paterson was back in the spotlight for a different reason shortly afterwards. He was put in trouble by Southwell's sloppy pass - and from the resultant penalty, Aussie Matt Burke reduced the leeway from a tricky angle.

Edinburgh then lost Fergus Pringle from the second row with a nose injury. He was replaced by Scott Murray, making his comeback from the knee problem which forced him to sit out the autumn Test series.

Newcastle kept the upper hand as the interval approached, but Burke trooped off in frustration with two penalty misses to his name.

He was wide with a straightforward effort from 35 metres out and then miscued again three minutes later from close to the touchline.

Edinburgh's controversial new recruit from Australian rugby league, Ben MacDougall, had the home fans roaring with excitement as he found clear space -but he surrendered the ball when the Falcons markers surrounded him.

The large contingent of Newcastle supporters were delighted when Wilkinson dashed out for the restart, having replaced Dave Walder in the pivotal role.

But it was Edinburgh who looked the side more likely to add to their tally in the short term.

Brendan Laney was narrowly off target with a drop-goal attempt - and then Marcus Di Rollo's powerful run was halted when the referee blew for a marginal forward pass.

Wilkinson got back into the swing of things in the 46th minute when he confidently stroked over a penalty from wide on the right to slash the home advantage to a single point.

Most of the action was confined to the area between the 22 zones as defences refused to buckle. With Wilkinson tied in to a maul, Tom May tried a snap drop-goal - but his effort sailed comfortably wide.
Phil Godman's long-range penalty gave Edinburgh a further boost.

But then came Stephenson's clincher, goaled by dead-eye Wilkinson.