Newcastle coach Alan Tait has stood by prop Tim Ryan following his horrendous blunder against Saracens.
Prop apologises after moment of madness
Newcastle coach Alan Tait has stood by prop Tim Ryan following the horrendous blunder that caused his side's defeat to Saracens on Friday.
With the Falcons leading 13-12, Ryan conceded a penalty right in front of his own posts in the dying seconds of the match at Kingston Park when he handled the ball in a ruck.
Alex Goode duly converted the opportunity with the last kick of the game to win the Aviva Premiership clash 15-13 for Saracens.
Tait revealed that Ryan had apologised to his team-mates after the match and said that the prop now needed to put his moment of madness behind him.
Gutted
"It was a silly act from a player who will probably regret it all season," he said.
"It's massively disappointing because the team put in a massive performance, but we did let them get back into the danger zone. I've told them to just leave the ball alone when they are in those positions.
"Tim knows it was a stupid act. He's gutted, he knows he's let himself and his team-mates down and he's stood up in the changing room and held his hands up.
"He knows what he's done, but we'll not carry that baggage and we have to move on. It's not just Tim to blame, we talked about not giving away penalties and we have to cut them out.
"It's a learning curve and a very hard one. They say it's tough at the top, but it's even tougher at the bottom."
"We now have to move on. We have to go to Northampton next week and that won't be easy, but we have to pick ourselves up and get on with it."
Saracens director of rugby Brendan Venter praised his player's resilience.
"We never gave up," he said. "The players kept it going for the whole 80 minutes and they never let their heads drop."
