Newcastle vs Exeter match report: Newcastle battle back to end long losing streak

Newcastle 29 Exeter 25

(GETTY IMAGES)

Newcastle will go into next week’s relegation crunch match with London Welsh in confident mood after they ended a 20-game barren run.

This win has been a long time coming but the director of rugby, Dean Richards, said he knew it was just around the corner after some encouraging performances of late.

He said: “We’ve been playing a good brand of rugby all year, a really expansive game trying to score tries.

“We’ve been left floundering at times and our defence has probably let us down occasionally. We made quite a few defensive errors again today, but I’m really delighted for the boys that the losing run is at an end. We gifted Exeter a couple of tries which we shouldn’t have done and had to work hard for our scores, but we got some good tries.

“It’s been coming for a while and although I’m still a little frustrated in the way we played today, I am delighted for the players and thought we deserved it.

“I said at half-time when we were just 15-14 down, there were opportunities for us because with a side that like to attack as Exeter do there are always going to be chances.”

Exeter scored three first-half tries through Henry Slade, Jack Yeandle and Ben White. They went 24-17 up in the second half, but could not defend it as Newcastle scored a double through Tom Catterick and Noah Cato. Sinoti Sinoti had also earlier gone over.

“I thought we were a little bit shoddy at times,” the Chiefs director of rugby, Rob Baxter, said. “We slipped off a couple of tackles which is something we haven’t done this season and fair play to Newcastle, they got some confidence, played very well and hung on.

“Rugby is a game where you tend to get exactly what you deserve and Newcastle deserved this win.”

The Falcons next face Welsh and Richards knows there is still work to be done. “We need to look a bit more closely at our defence because there were a couple of things we need to pay attention to,” he added. “I think we have the style of play we want sorted and it’s just a question of stringing together a few results over the coming months.

“This will be a real confidence boost for the players – there is a completely different atmosphere in the changing room now.”