Try as they might to lose this match, Gloucester stumbled into the semi-finals of the EDF Energy Cup when Apo Satala, the replacement flanker, bullocked his way over the line with three minutes remaining. Having finished top of pool A, they will face the Ospreys in Coventry on March 28, but Dean Ryan, their head coach, was hardly turning cartwheels after the final whistle. He lambasted his illustrious senior players for allowing the game to drift, reserving his praise for Dave Lewis and Satala, whose late arrivals reinvigorated their team.

Newcastle Falcons had been eliminated from this competition, but despite a paucity of possession and territory, they took a 10-6 lead into the closing stages. Enter Lewis, the 19-year-old scrum half, who made a nimble outside break to take Gloucester deep into their opponents' 22. Satala, the Fijian, followed up from the ruck with a powerful, short-range surge through a thicket of defenders.

“It's a credit to those two that they made such a difference, but we've also got to point the finger at guys who are senior internationals and say, ‘Why is that able to happen?'” Ryan said. “When a guy [Lewis] comes on who hasn't played at this level and he's the most energetic thing on the pitch, you've got a serious problem with some of the players who've been at this level for a long time.”

Lewis, making only his second senior appearance, had replaced the pedestrian Gareth Cooper, while Gloucester's star-studded threequarter line, all of them England players, rarely seemed on the same wavelength as Ryan Lamb, the fly half. Time and again the Gloucester backs attempted an intricate move from a set-piece, weaving pretty patterns off the ball, only for Lamb's popped pass to fall into no man's land, or to be dropped by the onrushing Lesley Vainikolo or Mike Tindall. Bitterly cold as it was, that was no excuse for the number of handling errors. “Our back line is struggling for cohesion, so suddenly the game becomes very attritional,” Ryan said.

This suited a limited but spirited Newcastle team, who scored the first try of the match midway through the first half after Willie Walker, the Gloucester full back, had fumbled the ball into touch on his own 22. From the resulting lineout, the Newcastle forwards inched their way towards the line until Jon Golding, the prop, reached out to score by the posts.

Olly Barkley kicked two first-half penalty goals to keep his team in touch, but there was little to excite the meagre crowd. Only 3,614 turned up at Kingston Park, a figure that was swollen by a two-for-one ticket offer. Some of the rugby was so poor that even those who had got in free must have wondered whether they had been given a rough deal.

After the break, Tindall thought that he had scored when he dived over by the left-hand corner flag, but the referee's assistant ruled that he had been pushed into touch. Rory Clegg's penalty goal extended Newcastle's lead to four points, but Gloucester were redeemed by Lewis and Satala. “We're in the semi-finals of a major competition and we'll take that,” Ryan said. “But we're going to have to take a good look at ourselves.”

Scorers: Newcastle Falcons: Try: Golding (19min). Conversion: Miller. Penalty goal: Clegg (63). Gloucester: Try: Satala (77). Penalty goals: Barkley 2 (22, 29).

Scoring sequence (Newcastle first): 7-0, 7-3, 7-6 (half-time), 10-6, 10-11.

Newcastle Falcons: S Jones; D Williams, T May, S Davey, J Rudd; R Miller (rep: R Clegg, 56), H Charlton (rep: M Young, 64); J Golding (rep: J Williams, 4-13), R Vickers (rep: A Long, 56), M Ward, T Swinson (rep: A Perry, 63), M Sorensen, E Williamson, B Wilson (rep: R Winter, 69), P Dowson.

Gloucester: W Walker; I Balshaw, M Tindall, O Barkley, L Vainikolo; R Lamb, G Cooper (rep: D Lewis, 63); N Wood (rep: A Dickinson, 53), A Titterrell (rep: O Azam, 46), C Nieto, A Eustace, A Brown, P Buxton, A Hazell (rep: A Satala, 59), A Strokosch.

Referee: S Davey (England).

Attendance: 3,614.