Richards: Mistakes cost us place in final

DIRECTOR of rugby Dean Richards admitted Newcastle Falcons had been second best on the night as they suffered a 33-12 defeat to Gloucester in Friday’s European Challenge Cup semi-final at Kingsholm.

Two Scott Lawson tries and a conversion from Joel Hodgson provided the Falcons’ points, Richards saying afterwards: “Gloucester are a good side, and the thing about playing against a good side is that you have to take your chances when they come.

“We didn’t do that tonight, we weren’t accurate with a lot of what we did and we turned a lot of ball over. We weren’t accurate enough in the contact area, and when you combine all of those things you’re not going to beat a good side like Gloucester.”

Taking the lead through Lawson’s first try, the Falcons trailed at the interval after conceding with the very last play of the half.

“Giving away the try just before halftime was a blow but we were still in the game, and even with 20 minutes to go we were still in the contest,” Richards told www.newcastlefalcons.co.uk.

“We just turned the ball over at the wrong times – not that there’s a right time – and we gave away penalties at critical times. We can argue over the rights and wrongs of those penalty decisions but the fact is they were given, and it was our own inaccuracy which put us in that position.”

Aiming to build on their fourthplaced position in the Aviva Premiership now as they head to Leicester Tigers on Friday, the Newcastle boss added: “We’ve lost two cup semi-finals now which is obviously disappointing, but we’re looking to the next game. That means a huge game at Leicester on Friday night, and I say that purely because it’s the next game.

“There’s no extra importance on it from a personal point of view – I haven’t been at Leicester for the last 15 years so it’s irrelevant in terms of attaching any additional significance to it in that sense. It’s just another big game that we’ll work hard to try and win, and they’re playing well at the Santiago Socino of the Falcons reacts after Friday night’s European Challenge Cup semi-final defeat at Gloucester moment despite having lost the derby to Northampton.

“It will be tough down there and we have to play better than we did tonight, but we’ve got quality players and I have every belief we can bounce back.

“We’re going in the right direction when you take the season as a whole, we finished eighth last season and hopefully we’ll be nowhere near that after the next two games.

“To achieve that we have to do a bit better than we did tonight, but our objective every year remains just to improve on where we were the year before. We seem to be doing that, but it’s just tonight.”

Johan Ackermann declared a sense of satisfaction after Gloucester reached their third European Challenge Cup final in four seasons.

The Gloucester head coach’s first campaign in charge also sees his team close to securing Champions Cup qualification for next term.

And they will now face Cardiff Blues or Pau in the Challenge Cup final at Bilbao’s San Mames Stadium on May 11, aiming to reclaim a crown last won in 2015.

“I know that the club has been quite frustrating on nights like successful in this competition, so if we didn’t do well I suppose it would have been a step back,” said Ackermann, following a 33-12 semi-final victory over Newcastle at Kingsholm.

“In sport, anything can happen on the day.

“We are pleased we got over the winning line, although it wasn’t a perfect performance. We made a lot of mistakes and were a bit indecisive in terms of our counter-attack.

“The try we scored just before halftime was quite crucial in terms of taking a little fire out of them. Our composure was the pleasing thing.”