Ask any regular watcher of the Gallagher Premiership to espouse its qualities, and the word "competitive" will almost certainly come up.

Last season's final table illustrated this: Leicester Tigers finished eighth, and only lost two fewer games than runners-up Bath. Fifth-placed Bristol scored more points, and conceded fewer, than champions Northampton. Going into the final round of the regular season, seven teams all had a chance of winning the title.

A salary cap system, designed to ensure equity across the board, means anyone should be able to beat anyone on their day.

However, for much of the past two years, Newcastle's 25-game losing streak threatened to undermine the Premiership's USP.

How can a league boast of being fiercely fought and uber-competitive if one club are just making up the numbers?

In a 10-team league, with only five matches per weekend, can the Premiership afford for one of those games to be a foregone conclusion?

With this in mind, Newcastles stirring 24-18 victory over Exeter was not only huge for the club and rugby union in the north-east of England, but for the very essence of the league itself.

Newcastle's win was as popular as it was long-awaited, widely welcomed by fans and pundits alike. Even our colleagues from BBC Radio Devon who could have understandably focused on the Chiefs' worrying start to the season paid tribute to Newcastle first and foremost at the final whistle.

With the smallest budget in the division, Falcons boss Steve Diamond needs his team to be confrontational and canny.

Sammy Arnold's try-making first-half tackle and Ethan Grayson's late drop-goal were great examples of this.

"We're trying to build something it's taking time, but the job in hand is to put on performances like that at home," said Diamond, who provided one of the images of the weekend as he chatted casually to an Exeter fan during the nervous final stages.

With Diamond declaring the "monkey is off the back", the challenge now is for the Falcons to take some more scalps.

But with the league shutting down over November for the autumn internationals, they will have to wait a full six weeks to have another crack at Kingston Park.