Falcons’ lack of a ruthless edge proving costly
DAVE Walder admits Newcastle’s lack of a ‘cutting edge’ cost them as their losing run reached eight league games thanks to a 24-10 defeat at Harlequins on Friday.
Tries from Huw Jones, Cadan Murley and Louis Lynagh allowed the reigning Premiership champions to open up a 19-3 lead, with the Falcons only replying through a Will Haydonwood penalty.
Tom Marshall did pull back a converted try before half-time, but the only score of the second half came when Murley secured Quins their bonus point.
The result is another blow for Newcastle, who had more possession over the course of the contest and who failed to score any points at all during a period in the second half where Harlequins had both Luke Northmore and Danny Care in the sin bin.
Head coach Walder said: “We had that period when they were down to 13 men and it’s questionable whether it should have been a penalty try or not.
“A yard from the line, it’s a pretty good tackle (from Care) to stop an offload, but that’s by the by, it didn’t go our way and then from there we made a couple of poor decisions.
“Against a champion team, we conceded tries that were a bit too soft.
“We played pretty well in terms of creating things, but we just lacked a ruthless edge.
“They do things the right way with the crowd – it’s a sell-out, they engage with the fans and they play a great style of rugby.
“I thought we actually negated them at times and played some pretty good rugby ourselves, without actually finishing it off and, as a result, we paid the price.”
Meanwhile, senior coach Tabai
Matson said he was relieved that Quins were made to pay for their disciplinary problems, describing it as ‘a shambles.’
The bonus-point victory moved the champions up to second in the table ahead of yesterday’s games and was Harlequins’ third win in a row.
Matson said: “If you told me before the game we’d be getting a 24-10 scoreline, I’d have been over moon.
“When we got opportunities, we took them and they probably didn’t.
“They’ll probably have two or three they’ll be really disappointed with, especially when we went down to 13 men, so ‘clinical’ is a good word.
“As always, there are bits of the performance we’re pretty unhappy with and that’s a good sign. To pick up a five-point win at home and be disappointed with parts of the game proves we’re travelling well.
“We actually practised a yellow card (situation) with Danny off during the week, but we never practised two yellow cards.
“It turned into a bit of a shambles, but we survived. That’s the main thing.
“It’s a tough old season – I think we’ve got one more home game, so a win like this just keeps us in the hunt for the top four.”
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