Walder frustrated after day of drama
Speaking after the pulsating encounter, the Falcons boss said: “I felt frustrated by the inconsistencies, both in the way we were playing and in terms of the way certain things were happening on the pitch.
“At the breakdown I felt there were some 50-50 calls which could have gone our way but didn’t, and maybe my frustrations were borne out of the fact we were so disappointing for the first 20 minutes of the game.
“We got ourselves back in with a chance of winning the game so I should probably look more at that than the officials or what happened in that opening spell, even though straight after the game it’s frustrating to think about those aspects.
“I thought both yellow cards against us were fair enough and I’m not using the officiating as an excuse, because there were things we could and should have done better at the start of both halves in particular.”
Walder added: “We’re not quite there yet in terms of having more than 10 minutes when we’re not at our best, and today we probably had 20 or 25.
“We gave ourselves too much to do, and even though there was a little bit of hope at the end it was just that score too far.
“It probably sums up the mood of the group, to be honest. They haven’t quite got the belief, and they’re all very modest people who downplay their skills.”
Acknowledging another wonder-try by Argentinean wing Mateo Carreras, Walder said: “Mateo is playing well and scored an exceptional try to put us right back in the mix.
“I expect he’ll be away with Argentina for their November internationals, and as much as we might want him in Newcastle we’re obviously delighted when any of our internationals are called up by their countries.
“If he doesn’t get called up then they must have some good wingers kicking around, but he’s impressive as a player and a great guy to work with.
“Instead of going for that drop-goal towards the end I’d have loved to see Mateo taking off again and doing what he’d done five minutes earlier with that incredible try, although in fairness that drop-goal would have put us ahead, so I’m not being too critical of him.”
Lamenting elements of a chaotic second half, Walder said: “There were skill errors in the second half rather than decision errors, and as coaches we probably got a couple of things wrong as well. It’s just disappointing, even if we’ve come away with two points away from home against a good side.
“We’ve got back-to-back away games in the space of five days as we head to Leicester in the Prem Cup on Wednesday, so it’s just something else we’ve got to deal with. But we’ll get on with it as we always do and look to improve again.”
The Falcons’ next home game is on Saturday November 5 when Bath visit Kingston Park Stadium.
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