Delany hails Falcons’ grit

Saturday 24 September 2016 Written by: Adam


The Kingsholm clash was no thing of beauty, the battered bodies in the changing room telling the story as Dean Richards’ charges claimed a first Aviva Premiership away win in two years, buoyed by a huge defensive effort and a sheer unwillingness to buckle.

Delany, who kicked eight of their points on the day, said: “The boys were pretty happy afterwards because they have worked incredibly hard for this.

“It is great for the morale of the squad to see those efforts being turned into results, we had a tough day at Bath two weeks ago but we have bounced back. We have been tight as a group, we have had trust in what we are doing and in the end got the result.”

The Kiwi fly-half added: “We shot ourselves in the foot a bit by not getting out of our own half, we brought pressure onto ourselves through a few silly errors but we reacted well and fronted up in defence. We defended as a full team, Gloucester have got a pretty sharp attack but they just couldn’t break us.

“The next step for us is playing more of the game in the opposition half, and we know that. It was far from perfect, but the massive positive was the fact we just stuck in there and dug deep.

“Our forwards put in an absolutely massive shift today. It was unbelievable, really, and it is awesome for the backs when we see the boys doing that graft. It makes our lives easier and we now have a couple of days to let tired bodies recover in time for Worcester next Sunday.

“It is a big week for us, this Aviva Premiership is a relentless competition and we know it will take a similar effort down at Worcester to come away with a result.”