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| Bates: 'Games Took Their Toll' |
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| Tim Visser and Mathew Tait chase down a kick ahead |
| 10 May 2008, 10:20 pm |
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| Acting director of rugby Steve Bates praised his tired Newcastle Falcons troops for playing their third game in six days, as they fell at Worcester in Saturday's final round of the Guinness Premiership. |
Trailing by ten at the break Newcastle went on to concede five second-half tries, with Bates stating: “That wasn't the end to the season we'd been looking for, but we've had a really tough week with three games in six days and I think it showed in the end.
“We had a lot of young lads involved, especially as the game went on, but they will take the lessons from today and learn from it going in to next season.
“Having played Wednesday night the boys were in no state to do any training on Thursday, we travelled all day Friday and therefore turned up for this game with half a team and no real preparation under our belts.
“Take someone like Tim Visser, a 20-year-old lad playing his third 80 minutes in six days in a position that is totally unfamiliar to him. It is a testament to him that he managed to put his body through that, but in those circumstances it is not altogether surprising that we had our work cut out.
“Having said that you also have to give a lot of credit to Worcester for playing as well as they did, and they showed again what a quality side they can be.”
Looking to the game itself, he added: “In the first half we didn't help ourselves with some indiscipline and poor decision-making, and to then concede three tries in eight or nine minutes at the start of the second half meant the game was already beyond us with half an hour still left to play.
“At half-time we were under pressure but still only ten points down, but to concede the daft penalties we did and then let them in for some pretty easy tries later on wasn't great.”
With his side finishing the campaign in eleventh place, Bates said: “It is clearly a very disappointing return on the year's efforts, but after a tough two-and-a-half months we are now finally over the finishing line for the season.
“The beauty now is that everyone starts the new campaign level pegging, and with a clean slate.
“We will now have a good few weeks of rest, get some new additions in to this squad and put in some quality pre-season work to ensure we start next season on the front foot.” |
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