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| Fletcher Acknowledges Classy Bath |
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| Tom Dillon and Ben Woods combine in defence |
| 8 March 2008, 9:51 pm |
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| Newcastle director of rugby John Fletcher conceded that Guinness Premiership high flyers Bath were good value for their four points at The Rec on Saturday, as the Falcons fell 22-11 to the West Country side. |
Speaking after watching both sides score one try apiece, Fletcher said: “I thought Bath were the better team, they caused us more problems than we caused them so you'd have to say they were worthy winners in the end.
“They had the better of the territory and possession, and even though our set piece was in very good shape we just didn't make it tell elsewhere on the field.
“Their inside backs were excellent and controlled the game, they were more of a threat than we were and that was where the game was won for them.
“They played well, and that's why they ended the game on top of the league. They're playing with confidence, style and we just didn't cope with that. We had enough ball and enough opportunities to hurt them, but we made too many mistakes and were just untidy in terms of executing what we'd called.”
Feeling that his Falcons team were not rewarded sufficiently for their superiority in the scrum, Fletcher said: “There are a lot of grey areas in rugby where sometimes the call can go either way, but I thought Ashley Rowden refereed the game very well apart from at the scrum area, where we were very frustrated.
“We were getting penalised at the scrum and I just don't know what the referee was seeing, it seemed like he was guessing and the players were massively frustrated by it.
“What I was seeing was their loose head flopping on the floor and driving round the corner on the angle time after time, and then we get penalised for it. Those penalties cost us dear, so clearly we need to have a look at the tape because we felt very hard done to.
“As I say though I thought the referee actually controlled the game really well apart from that one area, so I'm not using the officials as an excuse for the result today.”
Replacement Russell Winter eventually capitalised on the scrum gains with a late pushover try, Fletcher saying: “We knew that eventually they would tire and we would dominate.
“Admittedly we had hoped for it to happen earlier, but when we eventually got the pushover try it didn't come as any surprise. With the scrum being so dominant, what we needed to was for other parts of the team to get the pack in to a territorial position to go for that sort of attack, but they just didn't do it.”
With Bath's only try from skipper Alex Crockett having come via a rare defensive lapse by the Falcons, Fletcher stated: “Players have to make a lot of judgement calls during a game of rugby, and their try was just a case of one of our players making one bad decision.
“Other than that I thought our defence looked pretty good, although it was a scrappy game and not one of the greatest 80 minutes I've ever watched.
“What I'm really upset about is the fact that we didn't get even a bonus point, because that game should have been a lot tighter than the scoreline we ended up with.
“We should have been in a position in the closing stages to either win the match or to definitely get a bonus point, and I've made my feelings known to the players on that in pretty plain language in the changing room.”
With Steve Jones leaving the field due to a first-half ankle injury, leaving scrum half James Grindal to deputise, Fletcher said: “The last thing you want with your two first-choice fly halves away with England is for the guy wearing No.10 to go off injured, and while I thought Grinders gave a decent fist of it in the second half it's obviously not his primary position.
“We will have to have a sit down and think about what we do there for the Bristol game, and with Rob Miller playing so well for England Under-20s and the Development Team he may come in to consideration when we look to select the team for what is now a massive game.”
Summing up the mood, he added: “It will be a quiet bus home, but let's not go overboard because I don't think any of the players let themselves down today in terms of effort, and there were a number of positives.
“I thought the contribution of players including Tom Dillon, Carl Hayman, Phil Dowson and Ben Woods was outstanding, and then some of the youngsters from the bench like Tim Swinson and Rob Vickers really added a lot when they came on.
“What the team needed to add was much more precision and accuracy in carrying out what we had asked of them. I know they are capable of that, and the focus now is on a huge home game against a Bristol side which is occupying the same area of the table as ourselves.” |
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