Falcons’ will to win impresses Richards

NEWCASTLE director of rugby Dean Richards believes there is still far more to come from his charges after they ended a run of four successive Premiership defeats at Franklin’s Gardens.

“It’s a job well done. We felt we played at only 60 per cent of our capabilities and still won, which is quite nice,” Richards said. “There’s a fair bit more to come from us.

“Our defence was outstanding. Both sides made mistakes on the night but we found a way to win it.

“The backline we put out is a hell of a backline so, if we can get a bit more from them, there are going to be some good results coming our way.”

Northampton boss Jim Mallinder insists that his side are not getting the rub of the green following a number of television referrals which went against them.

“It (the decisions) makes a big difference,” he said. “You score one of those and the game’s over, you score two and you’ve won easily.

“We will still look at our game and we need to get our basics right – there were a couple of defensive mistakes in the first half – but we’ve not scored enough points to get over the line.

“We dominated in the second half and we just couldn’t score. To concede in that final minute was heartbreaking.”