Deano praises gritty Falcons after Quins battle
The in-form Londoners ended a run of four straight Gallagher Premiership victories at Kingston Park Stadium on Saturday, Richards saying: “They’re a good side.
“They came up here on the back of four wins whereas we hadn’t played for three weeks, and had hardly trained, so for us to get out there and win in the way we did was very pleasing.
“We probably left another three tries out there and at times we made hard work of it, which in part is credit to Harlequins making life so difficult.
“We looked rusty at times, as you’d expect after two weeks away, and even though we created a lot of line-breaks we just didn’t finish off enough of them.
“We’ve hardly been able to train for the last two or three weeks, and the boys are all joking in the changing room that maybe we should cancel the next three weeks’ training as well!”
Leading 14-7 at the interval, Richards said: “We came in at half-time cursing ourselves for missing a few scoring chances, but fair dues to the boys for sticking at it – I was pleased with their spirit.
“Fair play for Brett in stepping up and taking the kick in the manner that he did – that took a lot of bottle.
“We’re pleased with the result, for sure, but the boys will admit there were elements of our game where we were a little bit off in terms of knowing where we needed to be.
“Quins are a really good team though, we were underdogs going into it because they were on such a roll, and it was always going to be a big ask.”
Moving on now to Sale Sharks on Friday night at the AJ Bell, the Falcons boss added: “We’ve won five from eight in terms of the league games we’ve actually played, and the three we’ve lost have been Exeter, Bristol and London Irish – all very good sides.
“There’s so much more to come from the group, which is the particularly pleasing aspect, and we’re getting on with that hard work.”
