Newcastle Falcons held off a frenetic second-half comeback to earn a thrilling first win of the season and end Bristol Bears’ perfect start to the Premiership campaign.

AJ MacGinty had opened the scoring for Bristol with a routine penalty after being thwarted within touching distance of the line following fleet-footed work by Piers O’Conor to deceive Carreras.

The visitors survived a late London Irish fightback to make it three wins out of three in their last Premiership match but looked sluggish for much of the first half.

The early table-toppers’ clumsiness proved costly when Andy Uren turned possession over inside his own territory, allowing Newcastle to capitalise with the move that culminated in Carreras scoring.

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam cut a contemplative figure during an underwhelming first period from his side as he returned to the club where he won the 1997-98 Premiership as a player.

Newcastle head coach Dave Walder had spoken of his players’ determination to recover from their 39-5 hammering at troubled Worcester in their last Premiership game, and that determination resulted in a much-improved early defensive display.

A predictable onslaught from Bristol at the start of the second half saw Newcastle continually attempt to slow play down and lose Connor Collett and Sean Robinson in swift succession to yellow cards.

Henry Purdy capitalised by going over first for Bristol before Richard Lane scored his first Premiership try and MacGinty converted.

Restored to their full quota, Newcastle found momentum and finally added to their lead when Tian Schoeman – the late addition to their starting line-up – kicked successfully from distance.

The final 15 minutes were characterised by a flurry of errors from both teams as Newcastle stormed to victory, hitting the crossbar twice and adding a late penalty before Carreras ran 60 metres to score and seal a bonus point.

Newcastle head coach Dave Walder:

“We spoke through the week that the performance last week wasn’t to the standard that we expect here and we wanted to make sure that we gave an 80-minute performance, which we did today.

“From the moment that Brett Connon pulled out this morning we knew that we would be up against it, but we managed to stem the tide.

“A couple of minutes after we got back up to 15 men we were able to launch a platform for attacking and kept the ball on the right side of halfway.

“It makes a real difference bringing in two international centres (Argentina pair Matias Orlando and Matias Moroni) and then adding on to the wing Carreras. It’s a great backline.

“Carreras is a tough little character and he probably epitomised why we were good tonight.”

Bristol director of rugby Pat Lam:

“Newcastle were phenomenal. We said they were a hungry team and there were so many errors that we fed them.

“We got off to a poor start. I don’t know what the turnover count was but it wasn’t great. We’re pretty embarrassed with that performance.

“If you don’t come here with the right intensity and mindset – and stay on it all the time – these guys will keep coming at you and won’t go away. We needed to starve them but we fed them all night.

“Our passing was poor, our tackling was poor. There wasn’t that consistency we pride ourselves on. It’s one of those games that we’ll have to flush down the toilet and regroup from.”

Newcastle: Penny, Radwan, Moroni, Orlando, Carreras, Schoeman, Stuart, Brocklebank, McGuigan, Davison, Peterson, Robinson, Welch, Collett, Chick.

Replacements: Maddison, Mulipola, Palframan, De Chaves, Blamire, Barton, Lucock, Wacokecoke.

Bristol: Lane, Morahan, Bates, O’Conor, Purdy, MacGinty, Uren, Woolmore, Capon, Sinckler, Holmes, Joyce, Vui, Heenan, Bradbury.

Replacements: Thacker, Y Thomas, Lahiff, Hawkins, D Thomas, Randall, Sheedy, Bedlow.

Referee: Luke Pearce.