Richards reacts to Gloucester defeat
Tries from Adam Radwan, Mateo Carreras and Charlie Maddison were not enough for the Falcons to claim a share of the Gallagher Premiership points in a game which saw a comeback for club captain Mark Wilson and first-team debuts for Conrad Cade and Phil Brantingham.
“We haven’t played consistently for probably a month and a half now, and it showed,” said the Falcons boss.
“We were playing into the wind in that first half, and didn’t quite play as well as we could have done.
“There were a few loose kicks, our exits weren’t particularly good and when we were five metres from their line I think our rustiness showed.
“We rotated a lot of guys for the Biarritz game, then Toulon got cancelled, we’d had Sale cancelled on Boxing Day, and the guys just haven’t played consistently together.
“It’s been six or seven weeks of just not knowing whether we’re playing from one week to the next, but we’re back in now and hopefully Covid has come and gone in terms of the impact it’s had on our camp.”
Admitting to frustration at Pete Lucock’s try being chalked off by the TMO obstruction while Gloucester had a similar-looking score allowed to stand, Richards said: “It’s hard to see the difference between one obstruction being given and one not being given, but the TMO obviously thought otherwise.
“It’s a difference of opinion and you just have to go with it – you move on, and we didn’t quite manage to do that.
“I thought Gloucester played the referee extremely well.
“Whenever there was a stoppage they were talking to him, communicating with him, and it made a difference. Their captain ran the referee particularly well, but that’s our problem for not being as streetwise as they were.
“I’m not saying the referee made a big difference today – it was our own doing rather than his, and the rustiness showed.”
Newcastle’s next home game is on Sunday February when Exeter Chiefs are the Gallagher Premiership visitors to Kingston Park Stadium.
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