Dean Richards disappointed with Newcastle's inability to 'kill off the opposition'

Dean Richard was disappointed with his side's inability to put their "foot on the throats of the opposition" as they led for the entire match before conceding a try with just four minutes remaining.

Tries from Scott Lawson and Sinoti Sinoti gave the hosts a strong lead at Kingston Park, but the Falcons were unable to capitalise on the advantage as Leicester predictably found a way to win at the death.

Newcastle boss Richards said it was disappointing to see his side score more tries than the opposition and still lose the game, just as they have done previously. 

"We scored three tries to one last week and two tries to one this week and lost both games and that's the seventh game in 13 this year that we have scored more tries than the opposition," said Richards. "That's a hell of a stat when you score more tries and lose seven games - it's frustrating to say the least."

Though the Falcons coach did not doubt his team's desire, it was the finishing that let them down against Richard Cockerill's men.

"The boys put their heart and soul in it and they do every weekend there is a buzz about things, but when we have a chance to put our foot on the throats of the opposition we have got to make that happen," he said.

"Little things like in the first half when they had a guy injured and were down to 14 men we should have put it in the corner and gone for the try instead of just playing it and kicking the ball out for half-time.

"That's the difference between the way we are playing the game and how we want to play and killing the game off and killing off the opposition.

"It's all about our understanding of the game and game management. We had so much possession, so much territory and enough line breaks to kill them off and we didn't so that's our fault.

Credit

Meanwhile Cockerill was impressed with his side's ability to snatch a victory despite being behind for so long.

"We found a way to win although we played poorly," Cockerill said.

"They scored a good driving line-out try in the first half, then we defended really well but eventually we turned the ball over again and Sinoti scored a great try.

"Newcastle played really well. They have a brand of rugby which suits them on that pitch and fair play to them, we played as well as they let us, but we found a way to win even with the disruption of losing Tom Croft with what looks like a dislocated shoulder.

"That we managed to find a way to win having been on the back foot for large parts of the game is credit to the boys and a lot of credit also goes to Newcastle - they played really well."