Aviva Premiership: Newcastle made to pay for poor first half against Northampton
Last Updated: 21/09/14 10:59pm
Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards admitted his side paid dearly for a slow start after they were beaten 35-10 by Northampton at Kingston Park.
The reigning Aviva Premiership champions ran in three tries during the opening half-hour through Will Hooley, Alex Waller and Ken Pisi.
I definitely think progress is being made and the quality of players coming through is promising. There's a lot of stardust in there but a lot of youth as well and we need to get that blend right.
Dean Richards
Hooley also kicked 13 points and although the Falcons did improve after the interval, including Noah Cato scoring, the visitors were still able to secure a bonus point when George North touched down late on.
"In the first 28 minutes we were dreadful," Richards said.
"We sat down at half-time and said, 'Look, what chances have we got?' and everyone thought we might be able to get four tries, or get within a losing bonus point or even get the four points.
"We didn't think they had done anything out of the ordinary we were just poor in the first 28 minutes.
"We have to have more accuracy in what we're doing and we didn't have that accuracy which is what ultimately let us down in the final 10 or 15 minutes.
"I definitely think progress is being made and the quality of players coming through is promising. There's a lot of stardust in there but a lot of youth as well and we need to get that blend right."
Impressive
Hooley impressed for the Saints starting in place of the injured Stephen Myler, the performance of the fly-half just one of a number of things that pleased director of rugby Jim Mallinder in his team's victory.
"It's always difficult to come up here and I think to come away with a bonus point is very pleasing," he said.
"I thought we played really well in the first 30 minutes. We could have maybe scored one or two more tries but a lot of the offloads were fantastic and we made some really good decisions.
"It was a little bit disappointing that we didn't go on and get the bonus try earlier but we stuck with it and thankfully got it at the end.
"Will Hooley did very well. It's always difficult as a fly-half coming in and running the team but he did well for us in preseason when Stephen wasn't available and we need to have options."
