First phase fall off costs Falcons
Dean Richards rued indiscipline and inaccuracy as Newcastle Falcons suffered a 42-16 Aviva Premiership loss to Northampton Saints in Milton Keynes on Saturday.
Having trailed 13-0 early on the Falcons narrowed it to 16-9 by half-time, Northampton powering away after the break with four more tries to Newcastle’s one.
Richards, whose side host Exeter Chiefs next Sunday, said: “At half-time being 16-9 down we were in with a shout.
“If we had stuck to our task and continued to get the first-phase dominance we had at the back end of the first half I would have been happy, but our line-out fell apart.
“With that went accuracy in most other areas, and that was really disappointing.”
With Todd Clever sin-binned and the Falcons again conceding penalties in numbers, the director of rugby added: “It was fairly symptomatic of where we are as a side.
“There are some boys who don’t react to what the referee is asking them to do, and you are always going to get a referee who is a little one-eyed at places like Northampton.
“You have got to be right on your mettle and give them nothing at all, and our boys didn’t do that.
“You can’t blame the referee because you know exactly what you are up against. I had the fortune of playing for Leicester for 15 years so I know exactly what it is like for a referee to come and officiate in front of a crowd like that.
“As an away side you know what you are up against and you have got to be whiter than white. We didn’t get the rub of the green but I am not blaming the referee for that – it was just how the game unfolded.”
Crediting the Saints, Richards said: “Northampton were good on the day. They were always going to be better than they were at Worcester the week before and they showed a lot more variety than they did down there.
“Having said that, with our first-phase falling away the way that it did do, we were always up against it. If you don’t get that platform you won’t win games, and that was the most disappointing thing.”
Having lost their first two Premiership outings this term, Richards said: “The fact that we haven’t got one point to show from it is the biggest disappointment, especially last week and then this week.
“We could have snuck something at some stage but we only got into their 22 once during the second half, and we scored a try from it. When we are in there we can actually do something with it, but it is just getting there which is causing us problems. If you don’t have the first-phase platform it will never happen for you.”
Tom Penny scored the visitors’ only try of the day less than 10 seconds after coming on, Rochards praising the contribution of his bench players.
“There was some lovely play there when the young boys came on, but the game had broken up a little bit by then,” he said.
“It was the control earlier on that we needed to give us that platform, then in the last 10 minutes put teams to the sword. We didn’t have that, but there were still some positives.
“I thought Nili Latu was outstanding on the day. He played really well, and Jon Welsh handled that right-hand side of the scrum against a Northampton team who time and time again have demolished other sides in that department.”
