Lucio Cinti Luna of London Irish celebrates with Ben Loader (l) and Joe Powell
Dave Walder noted that Newcastle failed to find a foothold in their 39-17 defeat against London Irish at the Gtech Community Stadium on Saturday.
The Falcons have recorded back-to-back Gallagher Premiership victories with victories over Exeter and Gloucester in recent weeks, but James Stokes scored to give the visitors the worst possible start.
Mateo Carreras hit back soon after, but Paddy Jackson pushed the Irish six points ahead at the break.
A Brett Connon penalty and a Guy Pepper try put the Falcons ahead after half-time, before goals from Jackson, Adam Coleman and Lucio Cinti completed the Irish victory.
Declan Kidney, who is the director of rugby in London, Ireland, admitted: “The performance in Newcastle was probably a little unfair, but you know we stuck with it until the end.
“I think sport is part of life, there’s no need to beat yourself up, you have to work through it.
“Newcastle have been scoring a lot of games, haven’t they, to score two tries was the highlight of the game tonight and it was huge in terms of the outcome of the game.
“The bonus-point was good, we don’t take that part of our game lightly, and we work a lot on that. We managed to take our chances when we came.
“The most important thing in the last few weeks is that we have been learning to win, and it’s a new competition next week with new challenges.”
Walder said Newcastle were “out of shape” on a “poor day at the office”, as he paid tribute to London Irish.
“We spoke at half-time to decide when we came out of the changing room door,” he said. “We can continue the way we were in the first half, so it’s going to be a long afternoon, or we can have the attitude of just having six points even though we didn’t come out.
“The good thing I think is that everyone turned in the right direction 12 minutes after half-time, but unfortunately, things fell apart for us in the last 20 minutes.
“The Irish are a great team, they have Jackson who runs the game with 10, perennial guys who didn’t play today. Two big leaguers coming in.”
Gloucester 34-19 Northampton Saints
Gloucester head coach George Skivington said his players “wanted to make a point” as they returned to winning ways with a 34-19 victory over Northampton.
Skivington, who was celebrating his 40th birthday, saw his side score four goals at Kingsholm to move up three places to fourth in the table, leapfrogging their visitors in the process.
The win ended a three-game losing streak in the league for the Cherry and Whites, who were boosted by the performance of stand-in Santiago Carreras after returning from international duty with Argentina.
Skivington said: “I thought the lads were brilliant tonight. “Obviously, in our last Premiership game here, against Newcastle, we were very disappointed with what we put on the pitch and I think it’s probably the first time we’ve done that. in a few years.
“These guys wanted to make a point, they wanted to give something back to the fans and fix that.”
Tommy Freeman struck twice for Northampton after Jack Singleton’s try opened the scoring for Gloucester, but more from Chris Harris and Carreras put the hosts 21-12 up at half-time.
Fraser Balmain’s try then earned the Cherry and Whites a bonus, the Whites were able to respond through James Ramm between two Carreras penalties.
Northampton’s director of rugby Phil Dowson said: “I seem to be talking a lot after the game about how disappointing it was, but we gave ourselves another chance to get the points without converting.
“Then in the second half, the refereeing issues reared their ugly head again and we were on the wrong side of the referee, with a yellow card (for Lewis Ludlam).
“We give away penalties sometimes, it’s about how we recover, so we don’t give someone away or don’t give the ball away afterwards.
“Not repeating offenses and giving soft punishments, or punishments that can be avoided, would be a good thing to think about.
“We are very good things going forward and we are ready to enter the opponent’s 22, but when we are there, we cheat with the ball.”
Bristol 26-26 Leicester Tigers
Bristol ended a six-game losing streak in the Premier League by drawing 26-26 with Leicester at Ashton Gate.
Leicester looked well on their way to victory, but substitute Francois van Wyk was sent off 16 minutes from time and Bristol punished the 14-man Tigers by scoring two converted tries as striker Bryan Byrne and winger Gabriel Ibitoye struck.
Van Wyk was red-carded for a fierce challenge on England and Bristol prop Ellis Genge, and the home side had a chance to win with AJ MacGinty’s last-ditch effort sending the penalty 40 meters round.
Genge, who led the Tigers in the last league, saw his former teammates threaten to enter the play-offs.
Tries from center Dan Kelly, wing Chris Ashton and hook Julian Montoya put Leicester in the driving seat, while flyweight Freddie Burns added to the conversion with three penalties.
Bristol, without a Premier League win since defeating London Irish on September 24, led 12-6 midway through the second half.
Center Semi Radradra showed his comeback from injury with an early try, then defender Charles Piutau added a second goal, converted by Callum Sheedy.
But Radradra’s 29th-minute yellow card proved costly, as Leicester sent two tries to nothing, until Bristol’s try, both converted by MacGinty.
Radradra made his first appearance for Bristol since April after undergoing knee surgery, while winger Deago Bailey replaced the injured Luke Morahan and two changes at the back started for Sam Lewis and Jake Heenan.
England duo Freddie Steward and Ben Youngs have returned from the Autumn Nations Series, Jack Can Poortvliet on the bench, Kelly made his first appearance this season after recovering from injury, and closed Ollie Chessum too.
he returned.
