Tait confident – but wary of Wasps’ sting

ALEX Tait believes Newcastle Falcons can take their Anglo-Welsh Cup form back into the Aviva Premiership as they return to league duty at Wasps tomorrow.

The Falcons were 53-41 winners at Wasps less than a fortnight ago when the teams played out a 14-try thriller, Newcastle tightening things up in last weekend’s 57-0 home win over Cardiff Blues to go top of their group.

Keen to carry on the momentum as they visit Coventry for the second time inside a fortnight, Tait told www.newcastlefalcons.co.uk: “It has been a good couple of weeks for the club in the Anglo-Welsh Cup with two bonus-point wins and the lads are very pleased with their efforts for the most part.

“Some of our attacking play down at Wasps was very good but the most important milestone was getting the nil against Cardiff Blues, because we knew we had some defensive improvements to make from the previous week.

“A lot of guys came in who maybe hadn’t had too much game time, they really took their opportunity. They showed what they are about, it’s good for the competition within our squad and we’re hoping now to carry it into the league.”

Newcastle go into tomorrow’s 5.15pm kick-off two places and five points ahead of Saturday’s hosts, Tait stating: “We’re not reading too much into Wasps’ early form because we know they’ve got threats, and they’ve started to improve in the Premiership.

“They have top-class talent who can score from anywhere so we won’t be taking them lightly, and it demands a massive defensive effort on our part if we want to come out with anything.

“Wasps have got some big guys in that pack who will carry hard, get them some good go-forward and look to release threats in the backs.

“We’ve also got to be disciplined when the likes of Jimmy Gopperth are able to punish us through penalties, and we know how good a kicker he is from his time up here.

“We have to be nailed-on with everything to get the points but we’re confident we can do it, and we’ve been going well.”

The Falcons’ away record this season reads played five, won four, with the only competitive defeat on their travels seeing them take a four-try bonus point at Premiership champions Exeter Chiefs.

And Tait added: “We’ve got the monkey off our back a little bit in terms of our away wins this season – but we want to keep that going.”