Richards pleased with Sunday points-fest
Newcastle ran in nine unanswered tries in Sunday’s Championship Cup clash at Kingston Park, building on their 21-8 away win over Jersey Reds to sit unbeaten at the top of their pool.
“On paper Doncaster are as good as Jersey, if not better, so it was a slightly different performance level from us,” he said.
“We were rusty last week, we blew the cobwebs off in Jersey and I think today was a truer reflection of ourselves.
“The boys were disappointed last weekend and it was a wake-up call for us, but I thought they turned in a reasonably good performance today.”
Richards added: “The coaching group as a whole were probably a little bit unambitious last week if we’re totally honest in how we reflected upon the game, so we said this week let’s go out and play a lot more.
“We gave the boys more licence, and to be fair to them they’ve come back and rewarded us for that.
“There are still a few tweaks that need to be made and we’re not saying for a second that everything’s perfect, but on the whole we much more accurate in attack and tenacious in defence.
“The beauty of this group is that the players are very self-critical, they’ll sit down and find lots of areas for improvement and there’s a lot more to come from us. We dropped off at certain points, we could have built a bit of a bigger score and we can’t get complacent.”
Keen to continue their unbeaten run at Hartpury University on Saturday, the Falcons boss said: “Hartpury away next weekend isn’t a given by any stretch of the imagination.
“We’ll have to work hard down there, it’s always different away from home and I’m sure they’ll be fired-up for it.
“We’ll reflect on the Doncaster game and generally be pleased with our progress, but as we’ve said from day one it’s all about the league and securing that promotion.
“We’ve got a lot of boys to come back from injury and from the Rugby World Cup but we’ve got a good balance to the group, and the younger boys are really starting to step up and contribute.”
Newcastle Falcons’ next home game is on Friday October 18 when Hartpury visit Kingston Park in the Greene King IPA Championship. Tickets for the 8pm kick-off are available now by [**clicking here**][1].
[1]: https://www.eticketing.co.uk/newcastle-falcons/EDP/Event/Index/1484
