Richards credits Falcons’ winning mentality
Leading 14-0 at half-time and adding a further two tries after the break, Richards said: “The conditions weren’t great, and for the second game on the trot we had winds of 40-50mph.
“That doesn’t bode well for a great handling game, but on the whole I thought the boys played well.
“We stuck it and scored some wonderful tries – we probably got on the wrong side of the referee, but that’s just life. It seems to be the feature of the year at the moment for us.
“After that first couple of tries we gave away a few silly penalties, and the referee started looking at us differently. When you give away those silly penalties you probably need to expect what’s going to come as a result, and that’s our own doing.
“But we came out after half-time and scored the third try quite quickly, and in some regards it was quite comfortable.”
Using the competition to maintain their winning momentum while getting valuable minutes into the legs of some of his charges, Richards said: “There were a couple of boys playing for the first time in a long while, like Toby Salmon, Sam Stuart and Philip van der Walt.
“There were some other boys who just needed the game time, and overall I was pleased even though it was a little bit disjointed at times.”
Now focusing attention firmly on Saturday’s Championship trip to Jersey, the Falcons boss said: “Jersey away is one of the real target games of our season.
“You have to go over there in the right frame of mind, and you have to win.
“Games like that are what the Championship is all about, and the away games at places like Bedford, London Scottish, Ealing and Jersey are the ones which will help define our season.”
