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After dire season Newcastle make frank admission about recent recruits

By PA
GLOUCESTER, ENGLAND - MAY 18: Guy Pepper of Newcastle Falcons reacts after Gloucester scored a try during the Gallagher Premiership Rugby match between Gloucester Rugby and Newcastle Falcons at Kingsholm Stadium on May 18, 2024 in Gloucester, England. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)

Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington was relieved as his side put last week’s humiliating 90-0 defeat behind them as they convincingly beat Gallagher Premiership bottom club Newcastle 54-14 at Kingsholm.

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The eight-try victory put Gloucester in good spirits ahead of next Friday’s European Challenge Cup final at Tottenham when they will seek to pick up a second trophy for the season having already secured the Premiership Cup back in March.

Zach Mercer, Chris Harris, Charlie Atkinson, Ollie Thorley, Seb Blake, Jonny May, Alex Hearle and Josh Hathaway scored their tries with Caolan Englefield converting five. Stephen Varney and Santiago Socino each added a conversion.

Jamie Blamire and Matias Moroni scored Newcastle’s tries as Brett Connon added the extras.

Skivington said: “I was concerned about the scoreline last week and in the close season, I will need to review that in some detail as to how we conceded so many points.

“It was a totally different team and I thought we completed our league season with a bang to give a decent send off to some of our leading players.

“We didn’t have a lot of possession in the first half as a tricky Newcastle side competed hard in the set-piece but we took our chances clinically.

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“We lacked a little bit of discipline in the first half but we rectified that and showed good attitude and fight to finish the Kingsholm season in style.”

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For Newcastle it is was another miserable afternoon of woe as they finished their league fixtures winless and with a mere five points on the board from their 18 matches.

As a result they emulated Rotherham and London Welsh as the two previous sides, who finished a Premiership season winless but on both those occasions there were 22 games.

Their consultant director of rugby Steve Diamond said: “We had the better of the first half but they took all their three opportunities from three of our turnovers.

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“Realistically it’s the tale of our season as we have regularly failed to take our chances and it has certainly cost us.

“It will now be a transitional period for us as Newcastle’s recruitment hasn’t been fantastic in recent seasons as you can bring one or two Championship players in but not en-masse as you then become a Championship team.

“We need eight or nine new players, who are hard-wearing and durable and experienced Premiership performers.

“The task won’t be easy as you can’t transform a bottom side into a top-four one but all we can do is to try and move away from the bottom and certainly be more competitive, especially at home.”

Gallagher Premiership

P
W
L
D
PF
PA
PD
BP T
BP-7
BP
Total
1
Northampton
18
12
6
0
60
2
Bath
18
11
7
0
60
3
Sale
18
12
6
0
56
4
Saracens
18
11
7
0
56
5
Bristol
18
11
7
0
54
6
Harlequins
18
9
9
0
51
7
Exeter Chiefs
18
10
8
0
50
8
Leicester
18
9
9
0
45
9
Gloucester
18
5
13
0
32
10
Newcastle
18
0
18
0
5

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Comments

1 Comment
D
Diarmid 318 days ago

“We need eight or nine new players, who are hard-wearing and durable and experienced Premiership performers”.

So why are they scouting a retired fullback who himself admits that his “body is broken”?

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Comments on RugbyPass

J
JW 22 minutes ago
'Matches between Les Bleus and the All Blacks are rarely for the faint-hearted.'

Well a) poor French results doesn’t seem to effect the situation much. In fact one of the reasons given for this selection policy is that the French don’t tune in for foreign rugby content on the other side of the world, at a time when theyre not having their vino. So who would know the results? And b) this is the crux of the matter, they are legally abided to play them as part of WRs tier 1 reciprocal tours programme. The only real choice for the SH team is to treat it the same, which is fine when teams are happy to do that, but the AB’s have a totally anthesis policy/mentality so would never use the games in the same way.


So alligned with b) the only real option is to complain to those in control. I suspect that’s why weve seen France reneging on the practice, and you can only be left to think that if they hadn’t reneged, WR would have done something more drastic about it. Which of course would mean not just telling them to bugger off when they want to tour, it’s no one playing them (from t1 at least) at all (assuming they have no interest in scheduling match’s outside the windows, like Ireland and NZ are doing).


Then of course that means no involvement of France in the Nations Championship. Which means they are automatically the last ranked team in 6N to qualify, so the actual worst team in 6N gets to compete in it, making a mockery of the promotion and relegation WR wanted to happen between T1 and T2 for qualifying purposes. Yup, b) is just something nobody wants to happen. Well done FFR and LNR for making the tour work instead (how well is yet to be seen).

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