Former Junior All Black Jimmy Gopperth pulled the strings as Newcastle won 32-30 away to fellow strugglers Sale on Friday to guarantee their place in next season's English Premiership.
Gopperth, brought in by the Falcons to replace England hero Jonny Wilkinson after the World Cup-winning fly-half's departure to French side Toulon, scored one of Newcastle's two tries, both of which he converted, and kicked six penalties as well for a match haul of 27 points at Edgeley Park.
Defeat left Sale 10th in the 12-team Premiership, six points above bottom of the table Worcester, who currently occupy the lone relegation place.
But if Worcester beat second-bottom Leeds on Sunday, Sale - champions of England as recently as 2006 - will find themselves in deep trouble with north-west England in danger of seeing its sole Premiership side demoted.
Newcastle coach Steve Bates hailed former North Harbour and Blues outside-half Gopperth's display by saying: "Jimmy kicked the ball brilliantly and that was obviously a massive factor." Bates's Sale counterpart Kingsley Jones was left lamenting a "poor first half" from his side that was punished ruthlessly by Gopperth.
"We allowed Jimmy Gopperth into areas and gave away penalties in those areas," Jones said.
"I thought he was absolutely deadly and every opportunity he had, he took, whether it was with the boot, whether it was an opening in our defence. And again we've been punished."
Newcastle's victory was all the more impressive as not only did the north-east side win away from home, they did so without captain Carl Hayman after the All Black prop withdrew shortly before kick-off having failed to overcome a back injury.
Gopperth got Newcastle on the scoreboard with a couple of early penalties before he finished off a move that stretched Sale's defence by going in under the posts for the game's opening try in the 21st minute.
But Sale have a fine goalkicker of their own in Charlie Hodgson and the former England fly-half gave home fans something to cheer with a penalty four minutes later.
And the Sharks then closed the gap yet further with a try five minutes before half-time through Marika Vakacegu, which Hodgson converted.
But Newcastle had a nine-point lead at the interval thanks to two more Gopperth penalties.
Both teams repeatedly infringed in the second half and a Gopperth penalty after the break was followed by three from Hodgson, who then kicked a drop-goal to level the scores heading into the final quarter.
Sale were pressing but a strong collective effort from Newcastle's pack allowed scrum-half Micky Young to be bundled over for a try, thanks in part to poor defending by the home side, and Gopperth converted.
Hodgson kicked a penalty before Sale, for the only time in the match, went ahead with minutes remaining after a crossfield move crearted space for a Kristian Ormsby try.
But Hodgson missed the conversion and Gopperth's final penalty restored Newcastle's lead.
Hodgson tried to win the match for Sale in the closing seconds but an off-target drop-goal effort set the seal on Newcastle's victory.
