Edinburgh claimed control of Champions Cup pool five last night by completing back-to-back wins over previous leaders Newcastle Falcons, roaring back from an 8-6 deficit at the break with 15 unanswered second half points at Kingston Park.

It was a long-awaited away win but it could not have come at a better time as they move into the key period of their season with the festive derbies looming ahead of the matches against French giants Toulon and Montpellier that will now decide whether they can complete the task of overturning bookies’ odds of 14-1 against them qualifying for the quarter-finals before the tournament began.

Newcastle had been forced into a late change which increased the size of the Scottish contingent on the pitch, with lock Calum Green picking up an injury in the warm-up to be replaced by Jedburgh-born Glen Young in for Calum Green. He came into a line-up that looked considerable stronger than the team beaten in Edinburgh nine days earlier, 11 changes having been made for a game the English side had to win to have any chance of reaching the quarter-finals.

Their chances were hampered by early injuries to two of their sizeable contingent of sizeable South Sea Islanders, Johnny Williams and Nemani Nagusa having to be replaced in the first 15 minutes, the latter going off immediately after he had wasted a two man overlap by throwing the ball into touch, perhaps explaining why he needed to go off for a head injury assessment.

They took the lead soon after, however, a Jaco van der Walt cross-field Garryowen fielded well by Simon Hammersley and Sinoti Sinoti linking to send Vereniki Goneva clear down the left. After drawing the cover, he then slung a perfect one-handed return pass out of the tackle to send fellow winger clear, Luke Hamilton unable to prevent him from scoring, but doing well to stick to his task and force him to score in the corner to meak Toby Flood’s job of converting that bit harder and the former England stand off duly missed.

Edinburgh’s Fijian talisman Bill Mata then earned the penalty opportunity that let van der Walt reduce the deficit and he and Flood exchanged further penalty strikes that made it 8-6 at the interval, Newcastle having looked the stronger side without managing to make that slight superiority tell, before Richard Cockerill got the chance to get to his players and urge them to believe in themselves.

“I felt at half-time with the whole group that we were just sort of waiting for the game to happen, but I think in the second half we took the game by the scruff of the neck and I think we deserved to win and it was just about not letting them get anything out of the game as well, so I’m delighted for the performance,” said the Edinburgh coach.

Everything duly changed almost immediately after the interval, with the visitors’ first score, powerhouse winger Duhan van der Merwe earning them the initial field position with a chip and chase down the left touchline, forcing Goneva to concede a lineout midway inside his own half and when possession was secured, van der Walt spotted spece in behind the Falcons defensive line. His pick was well weighted and while it bounced awkwardly for James Johnstone as he got to it on the goal-line he did well to get a hand on the ball steer it into his own path and catch it at the second attempt before touching down.

Van der Walt’s conversion extended the advantage, but the stand off got a bit too ambitious as another opportunity looked to be opening up deep in Falcons terriroty, his attempted triple miss pass dropping short of compatriot van der Merwe and he was lucky that Goneva failed to capitalise on the loose ball.

It was the home team captain’s turn to be let off the hook soon after when, his wild hack after at the ball after knocking it on, was collected by Johnstone and he fed Darcey Graham who made ground before releasing Chris Dean inside the 22 only for the centre to be tap tackled 10 metres short of the line.

A penalty for a collapsed scrum then let van der Walt give his side a two score cushion as the match entered its final quarter and Edinburgh then had their defensive resolve tested, standing up to a spell of intense pressure until Newcastle overthrew the ball at a close range lineout.

The result was then sealed with their second try, Sinoti failing to deal with a Henry Pyrgos Garryowen, Edinburgh reclaiming the ball and this time shifting the ball left in more orthodox fashion, with Blair Kinghorn delivering the ball to van der Merwe in sufficient room for the winger’s pace and power to do the rest.

With limited resources in terms of personnel, they now face a challenging month’s rugby, but that will only allow Cockerill to challenge them further.

“The best players I’ve played with and coached prepare themselves well and turn up and are consistent every time they play. That’s what being a pro player is and we’ve got some really good ones here,” he said.

“What builds resilience and quality in Test players is playing in these sorts of games and then backing them up. We’ve done it for the past couple of weeks and we have one hell of a challenge against Glasgow, who have a good squad and have played really well.”

His pride in what they have done in this pool so far, however, was reinforced by the reaction of his old mentors and team-mates Dean Richards, Newcastle’s director of rugby and their defence coach John Wells.

“I know Dean and John really well. John told me they respect us because we’re playing good rugby. I know that he doesn’t give out those compliments lightly. I’m enjoying it with a group of guys who are working really hard and getting better,” he said.

For his part Richards meanwhile acknowledged that the better team had won, saying: “I think Edinburgh were good on the day and deserved the victory. I just thought they took their chances better than we did.”