Home form vital to the Falcons - Walder
‘Stick to game plan and we’ll get result’
HEAD coach Dave Walder believes Newcastle Falcons’ home form will propel them up the Gallagher Premiership table as they host Gloucester at Kingston Park this afternoon.
The Falcons have lost only one of their last five home games in all competitions but still find themselves bottom of the tightest Premiership table in recent memory - this despite having won their last two league games against Bath and Northampton.
“My outlook has always been win your home games and challenge well away from home, and it starts with Gloucester today,” said Walder (inset right) ahead of today’s 3.00 kick-off.
“Gloucester will ask us different questions to what Edinburgh did over the past fortnight, they will have different strengths and weaknesses, but we are very clear about how we want to play the game against them.
“If we execute that game plan then I have all the faith in the world we will get the result.” Newcastle are without injured backs Johnny Williams and Sinoti Sinoti but do welcome back Josh Matavesi from a three-and-a-half-month lay-off in the centre.
Walder added: “Everyone has injuries so we are not going to sit here and whine about it.
“We have a squad here to cope with these things and nobody here is making excuses.”
Determined to be more ruthless than they were during last weekend’s Heineken Champions Cup loss against Edinburgh, he added: “We conceded far too many turnovers and avoidable penalties around the halfway line.
“If the opposition win a penalty or a turnover through their own good play then it is a little easier to live with, but it is unacceptable when you have a stat like being pushed into touch seven times in one game.
“We attacked well in the first half in terms of how we moved the ball and where we wanted to get it to and we created plenty of line-breaks.
“We just were not very clinical in converting those line-breaks into