Ponton praises Falcons’ attacking instincts
The academy head coach joined Mark Laycock and Scott MacLeod in coaching the side as Newcastle rotated their managerial ranks, saying afterwards: “It was a big focus of ours to come down here and get the win, so we’re pleased to have achieved that aim.
“I’m not quite sure we met our performance goals and it was by no means the full package, but the win was the main thing and we’ll take that as a starting point.”
Trailing at points in both halves, Ponton added: “We knew Wasps would run it a lot and play from all areas, they’re a good attacking outfit but we have a lot of youngsters of our own with plenty of threat. In attack we knew we could match them with our try-scoring play, we were under the cosh a bit at the start and we had to dig deep.
“We steadied the ship after that initial storm, we started to play some better rugby and we were putting guys into space with front-foot ball once we got our shape going. Coming back from 19-3 down to go in level at half-time was a good effort, but there were a lot of things we could tighten up on.”
Noting a mental and physical progression, Ponton said: “In the years that I’ve been here at the club these are the kinds of games we would typically have lost.
“I think that’s the significant thing, and our focus on having fit, athletic players to suit our style of play is really important. The lads know our shape, it’s really starting to pay dividends and we know we’ve still got gas in the tank going into the last 20 minutes of tight games.”
Newcastle Falcons are next in action at home to Cardiff Blues on Saturday. Tickets for the 5pm kick-off are available by [**clicking here**.][1].
[1]: https://www.eticketing.co.uk/newcastle-falcons/details/event.aspx?itemref=3164
