Jonny Wilkinson was grateful to the other members of the Newcastle Falcons youth brigade at Twickenham on Saturday as Newcastle overcame their illustrious fly-half's dismal goalkicking to take Tetley's Bitter Cup with a strunning 30-27 victory over Harlequins.

Trailing by nine points with just four minutes remaining, the north-east side devastated the Harlequins supporters in a 71,000 crowd by grabbing late tries from Jim Jenner and Dave Walder to secure an amazing win.

The last-gasp nature of Newcastle's win reminded Wilkinson of the feelings he had when Dan Luger touched down for the injury-time score which gave England victory over world champions Australia in November.

You have put so much work in and you hope that at the end you will come through whatever pressure there is. It was a wonderful feeling.

Wilkinson converted only four of his eight kicks at goal, including one miserably fluffed attempt in the first half.

Newcastle's win was cruel on Harlequins stand-off Paul Burke, who smashed the individual point record of 22.

However, touch judge Steve Lander's controversial decision to award Newcastle the throw at a late line-out, even though prop Ian Peel appeared to have taken the ball into touch, ultimately proved crucial as Walder linked into the line to score the decisive try.