Richards’ relief as his Falcons swoop for win
Newcastle Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards was left feeling relieved last night after his side overcame Bristol Bears in a scrappy 13-5 win in the Gallagher Premiership.
While both sides squandered multiple opportunities, a converted Callum Chick try on the stroke of half-time, coupled with two late penalties from fly-half Brett Connon, helped the Falcons past Bristol at Kingston Park.
And following the tense win, which sees Newcastle move up to fifth in the Premiership, Richards was effuse in his praise of what was a whole team performance.
“It wasn’t a particularly entertaining game,” said Richards.
“It was in some respects but not in others, so to win and get our third win of the season out of five, I’m happy with that.
“The two penalties from Brett took the game away at the end, and I thought we were a little bit unlucky we put all the pressure on them and we didn’t quite get over the line.
“Numerous times we were there and we just couldn’t take it. We had about 60% territory in the first half and to make that count, we needed the points.
“Even then, going into the second half, we needed to score a few more points and we sort of faltered a little bit in that first 15 to 20 minutes.
“But the replacements coming off the bench made a huge difference. Jamie Blamire again got two steals which I thought was outstanding.”
While the win sees Newcastle move up to fifth, it leaves Bristol in 12th.
Pat Lam’s men lost four games in the regular season last year, a feat they have already matched this campaign through five rounds.
And the Bristol director of rugby bemoaned a host of errors and inaccuracies that cost the Bears.
“I can’t fault the effort,” said Lam. “We had a lot of opportunities to win the game.
“Unfortunately, individual errors cost us, whether that’s missing touch, turning the ball over by the way that we carried the ball. We trained it all week and when we did it, we did it superb.
“It’s a reflection on getting those sorted when we go away this time but there was a lot of effort.
“Our defence was much better and today it just feels like we gifted that game over. At the end of the day we say ‘we’, and it is ‘we’ because we’ll take the hit but there’s a lot of me out there.
“They’ve got to sort that out. The boys were hurt in that sense but ultimately we’ve got to finish this first stage.
“We’ve got a bit of a break now and we’ll launch the second part of our season.”