Deano salutes St James’ Park heroes
The director of rugby said: “St James’ Park is a fantastic stadium as we’ve known for a little while since the World Cup in 2015 so in that respect we were just itching to get here.
“With a crowd of 30-odd thousand, it was absolutely brilliant on the day.
“It was a proper rugby game, we got over the line in the end but we were a little bit frustrated by our accuracy at times. But, having said that, I thought we probably deserved to win it on the day.”
Twenty points from the boot of Toby Flood proved the difference against an indisciplined Saints outfit, Richards saying: “Fair credit to our boys, they were disciplined throughout, which I don’t think Northampton were, and that’s probably what got us the win.”
Now firmly in play-off contention and with a European quarter-final on Friday, the Falcons boss added: “We’ll take it one game at a time, we know we’re underdogs in almost every tournament we’re playing in but we’re enjoying it and we’re having a bit of fun going into the games and getting out with a win.
“There were 30,000 people here and the boys are out there mingling with their relatives and a lot of friends are here, there are a lot of people who are known to the players.
“That’s the beauty of rugby in the North East, it’s such a small community but there are still 30,000 people who want to watch a game of rugby.”
