Richards: “We came away with the win and did it in style”
Newcastle Falcons Director of Rugby Dean Richards was a happy man last night after his team signed off the 2014/15 season with a five try bonus point win at home to Harlequins.
Speaking after the game Richards said: “We came away with the win that we wanted, probably needed and actually did it in a bit of style in the end.”
After a season filled with big performances culminating in a number of painfully close defeats, the Newcastle side were determined to end the season on a high, and scores from Richard Mayhew, Scott Lawson, Mike Blair, Adam Powell and Andy Saull meant they did just that.
“The changing room is totally different to how it has been recently. The boys have been gutted with a lot of the results of late, not so much that we lost, but by the way that we lost by just one or two points so we had to win today.
“The players came in with that mindset and we are delighted with it. It meant a lot to a lot of the boys.”
Richards’ post match interview was a welcome change from the all-too-familiar story in recent weeks of the Falcons’ on-field mistakes causing them to find themselves on the wrong end of the score line.
“A lot of the errors over recent weeks were just individual errors and we knew that if we tidied them up and concentrated on doing things properly we would win. For today’s game we set ourselves a goal of 20 points in the second half and we scored 21 which sealed the game.”
Speaking of his former side, the Falcons boss said:
“They’re a quality side and they had a lot of experience and class out there, particularly with the likes of Nick Evans and Danny Care who led them around the field. But they also have players like Clifford on the back row, who is going to go a long way.”
After scoring less than two minutes into the game, the Falcons found themselves trailing as they headed in for half time, but three second half tries saw them back in front as the lock hit eighty minutes.
The Falcons weren’t done though, choosing to keep the ball in play rather than end the game allowed Andy Saull to cross the line for their final score of the game. But with spirits high, the victors chose to let Alex Tuilagi kick for the conversion.
Richards commented: “It will go down in history as probably one of the worst kicks ever, but it shows how everyone contributed today and it shows how the boys are and the fact that they gave him the kick at the end was brilliant; I’m only surprised somebody like Eric Fry didn’t take it.”
“It was nice though, the boys showed ambition right until the end. What it means is we can win, and we can in against sides that have your Marland Yarde’s your Danny Care’s and your Nick Evans.
“We just need to play to the style consistency and get all of our little bits and pieces right and if we do that, we can do well.”
