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| Bates: Bonus Point No Consolation |
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| Rory Clegg impressed on his Guinness Premiership debut |
| 7 September 2008, 6:08 pm |
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| Falcons director of rugby Steve Bates insisted a bonus point was no consolation, as his Newcastle side missed out on an opening day Guinness Premiership victory over Sale Sharks. |
The visitors claimed the spoils with a 14-9 win at Kingston Park, with Bates stating afterwards: “We're really disappointed we didn't win, and a bonus point is no consolation to us.
“Sale never created anything in the second half whereas we made three or four scoring chances, but the difference between winning and losing in this game is the ability to put those chances away.
“In the first half I felt we looked a little rusty and stood off them a bit too much, but we pulled that together well defensively after half time and had the better of the second half.”
With Barnard Castle Schoolboy Rory Clegg making his first team debut, Bates was quick to praise the England Under-18s star for a composed showing.
“I thought Rory was outstanding at fly half, considering he's only 18 and this was his first Guinness Premiership outing,” he said.
“Against a back line full of international players he did exceptionally well, and we felt as if we were very unlucky to lose.
“For the Sale try he will be disappointed because he just shifted off Charlie Hodgson a little early, allowing him to take the space, but he is a young man who is learning all the time and I felt that was one error on a day where he did a lot of good things.”
Looking at the game as a whole, he added: “Sale had a little bit of pressure in the first half which we absorbed fairly well, and in the second half they didn't really create anything at all.
“What we said before the game was that we needed to play in the right areas of the field, and I thought we did that well.
“There were maybe a couple of instances in their 22 when Rory went for the cross kick rather than going through the hands, but if someone gets on the end of the kick and we score two tries then it's the right decision. I'll never criticise a player for trying something, and I thought he put in a very good performance all round.
“In the end I thought it was a fantastic team effort with everyone contributing, but the boys are very disappointed because they know they could have beaten what was a star-studded Sale team.
“People might say a bonus point is a consolation, but that's not how it feels right now because we felt that game was there for the taking.”
There was further bad news for the Falcons with Bates revealing: “Geoff Parling unfortunately has a broken cheekbone and Brent Wilson has broken a bone in his hand, but we will come back on Monday and assess where we are in terms of personnel for next Sunday's game against Northampton.” |
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