RICHARDS CONTENT WITH FINAL PRE-SEASON DISPLAY
The Falcons rounded off their pre-season campaign with a 15-5 defeat against the RaboDirect Pro 12 club with the game being played at Mansfield Park, home of Hawick RFC.
A series of penalties from the boot of Greig Laidlaw and Piers Francis sealed victory for the Scots, but with the Falcons crossing for the only try of the contest, there were positives to be taken going into this Friday’s Aviva Premiership opener with Bath Rugby at Kingston Park.
“We were up against quite a big wind in that first half, which allowed them to get up a bit of a head of steam,” said Richards.
“We defended well, and then in the second half had most of the territory and most of the opportunities. We just couldn’t make it tell.
“In pre-season games you just try and take out of it what you can, and in terms of plus points I thought our scrum was very good,” added Richards.
No fewer than four of the Falcons’ new recruits started their first game in the black jersey with Richards pleased with what he saw from them.
He said: “It was nice to see Andy Saull back playing again after his injury, Adam Powell came on and played well in the centres and overall it was a very useful exercise.
“The main thing is understanding why you need to do certain things at certain times and, despite not finishing them off, we made some decent breaks. In the second half we didn’t take a further five or six chances, but there were a lot of positives in terms of what we created.”
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