Newcastle Falcons snatched a thrilling late victory to maintain their perfect start to the Premiership Rugby Cup, Max Pepper’s late try and Brett Connon’s conversion clinching a nail-biting northern derby on Friday at Kingston Park.

The visitors led 12-8 at the midway point of a keenly-contested game between the two previously-unbeaten teams in the group, with this year’s format seeing the five pool winners and three best runners-up going through to the quarter-finals.

On a freezing cold night the Falcons tried to warm up the hands with some fluent early handling in the backs, but their chance for points went begging when they kicked a penalty to the corner and knocked on at the back of the resulting line-out.

Sale, too, emerged without score when they sent a penalty to the left corner and failed to convert the maul, but they finally broke the deadlock on 22 minutes when hooker Tadgh McElroy broke from the base of a maul in the right corner.

Tom Curtis pulled the conversion attempt wide of the uprights, but opposite number Brett Connon had no such worries finding his range when Murray McCallum’s jackal at a breakdown 30 metres out earned the Falcons a penalty which the fly-half duly sent between the North Stand sticks.

Momentum continued to swing Newcastle’s way, with a length-of-the-field attack seeing Cameron Hutchison make a line-break and feed Ben Stevenson, who turned on the turbos and got to within five metres of the Sale try-line.

The resulting sequence of phases resulted in a penalty which the Falcons kicked to the right corner, with hooker Jamie Blamire scoring an unconverted try from the driving maul.

His side were reduced to 14 men just before the break when Philip van der Walt was sent to the sin bin, but the visitors failed to convert the immediate opportunity when they kicked a penalty to the right corner but knocked on at the base of the maul.

They did manage to snatch a 12-8 half-time lead with the final play of the opening 40 when replacement prop James Harper was driven over from another maul in the same part of the field, Curtis adding the extras from out wide.

Newcastle fired fractionally wide in search of the first points of the second half when Connon’s long-range penalty was ever so slightly off target, his side having won back their own kick-off with some aggressive breakdown work.

The Falcons were showing plenty of fighting spirit and regained possession with a massive midfield counter-ruck, setting in motion a passage of play which ended with Tom Gordon scoring down the right.

The Kiwi flanker raced 50 metres and rode a desperate last-ditch tackle before regaining his feet to dot down, having been fed by earlier work from Alex Hearle and Sam Stuart.

Connon’s touchline conversion had the line but not the length as it fell just short of the crossbar, but his side had a one-point lead going into the last 25 minutes.

Sale nudged back in front when Curtis scored and converted his own try from a close-range pick and go down the right, but the Falcons responded right away when Ben Stevenson scored a stunner down the left, chipping and chasing down the left before running through the last defender to dot down.

Connon’s touchline conversion fell just short to leave the home side trailing by one, but Curtis added a further three with a simple penalty before Tom Burrow scored on the intercept.

Connon’s 73^rd minute penalty kept Falcons in the hunt, and Kingston Park went potty three minutes from the end when Stevenson’s line-break and Pepper’s support saw the latter diving in for a precious try.

Connon’s conversion sealed it, leaving Newcastle on a perfect 15 points from their three Cup outings.

Newcastle Falcons: 15 Ethan Grayson (Nathan Greenwood, 73), 14 Ben Stevenson, 13 Sammy Arnold (Oli Spencer, 65), 12 Cameron Hutchison, 11 Alex Hearle, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart (Max Pepper, 67); 1 Murray McCallum (Mike Rewcastle,59), 2 Jamie Blamire (Ollie Fletcher, 65), 3 Richard Palframan (Callum Hancock, 59), 4 Sebastian de Chaves, 5 Adam Scott (Freddie Lockwood, 15), 6 Philip van der Walt, 7 Tom Gordon, 8 Callum Chick (captain).

Scorers – Tries: Jamie Blamire, Tom Gordon, Ben Stevenson, Max Pepper. Conversions: Brett Connon. Penalties: Brett Connon 2.

Sale Sharks: 15 Will Addison, 14 Obi Ene, 13 Luke James, 12 Sam Bedlow, 11 Alex Wills, 10 Tom Curtis (captain), 9 Raffi Quirke; 1 Bevan Rodd (Tumy Onasanya, 45), 2 Tadgh McElroy, 3 Nick Schonert (James Harper, 33), 4 Ernst van Rhyn, 5 Ben Bamber, 6 JL du Preez (Tom Burrow, 15), 7 Sam Dugdale, 8 Dan du Preez (Joe Bedlow, 45).

Scorers – Tries: Tadgh McElroy, James Harper, Tom Curtis, Tom Burrow. Conversions: Tom Curtis 2. Penalties: Tom Curtis.

Referee: George Selwood. Attendance: 3,604.