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The 'fantastic' Steve Diamond verdict on Newcastle beating Saracens
By PA
Steve Diamond believes Newcastle “left 10 points” on the pitch following their hard-fought 17-12 win over Saracens at Kingston Park. The Falcons lifted off the foot of the Gallagher Premiership table thanks to tries from Alex Hearle and Adam Radwan along with a Brett Connon penalty.
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Friday’s victory was Newcastle’s fourth successive win after three Premiership Rugby Cup triumphs and comes following reports earlier in the week that the club has been put up for sale. Director of rugby Diamond revealed he asked his side to put themselves “in the shop window” in recent weeks as they picked up their second Premiership win of the season.
He said: “There has been some turbulence off the field, or would be perceived as turbulence i.e. the club going up for sale, which is a positive, a real positive. I asked the lads over the last couple of weeks to put ourselves in the shop window and they did it last week against a very strong Sale side, that went amiss – it was ‘only the cup’ as people would say.
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“Then we got our first chance back in the league and we left 10 points out there if I’m perfectly honest. Can you imagine if we do get investment how good we will be? Can you imagine spending twice the amount of money like the other clubs do? It would be fantastic so that is what we are looking to do.”
Connon put the first points on the board for the Falcons with a penalty, but Saracens took the lead when Tobias Elliott crossed. Newcastle instantly responded through Hearle and Radwan and they put on a fantastic defensive display in the second half, which saw only Tom Willis squeeze through to score a try in the final minutes. Hugh Tizard was then shown a red card at the death for a challenge on Sammy Arnold.
Reflecting on the game, Diamond added: “The elements helped us a little bit, there was a hellish wind out there first half and it completely died at half-time. We chose to go with it, which sometimes you would never do, certainly at your own ground.
“But Callum (Chick) made the right decision and from minute one they gave penalty after penalty in the first 15 minutes. If that happens to you, you get unsettled as a team, certainly away from home. That happened to Sarries, we managed to unsettle them.”
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Saracens director of rugby Mark McCall admitted his side were under pressure in “most areas” throughout the game. He said: “They were much better organised than we were, they looked better coached than we were. They thoroughly deserved to win the match.
“It was every area today, it started with our penalty count which was huge. They had a strong wind in the first half and that kept dumping us back into our 22, then it kind of unfolded from there a little bit. We lost some lineouts and scrums under pressure, we were under pressure in most areas. All credit to them.”
