Steve Bates: Newcastle Falcons dream still alive
Mar 1 2010 by Nick Purewal, The Journal
STEVE Bates believes Newcastle Falcons’ Heineken Cup dream is nowhere near dead – but he admits his side must not lose more ground on the top-six Guinness Premiership picture.
Backing his men to get their game together in all facets finally this weekend when they entertain Bath at Kingston Park on Sunday (kick-off 3pm), Falcons rugby director Bates knows a win would fire his side right back into the qualification mix for European rugby’s top competition.
The Falcons had any number of chances to bury Worcester at Sixways on Friday night as they slumped to another frustrating defeat.
After sloppy errors at Northampton cost Newcastle any chance of victory, then more mistakes handed the Falcons a draw against London Irish at Kingston Park when they should have eased to victory, Friday’s Worcester loss was another big chance missed.
But despite all the disappointments and niggles of the last three weeks in the big Premiership return, all is not lost – and Newcastle boss Bates is confident his side still have what it takes to muscle in on the top half of the table.
“Even despite three weeks where we haven’t performed the way we expected or wanted to and haven’t come out with the points that we felt we were capable of, we are still in with a shout of that top six,” Bates asserted, backing his men to fight their way into form again.
“So if we win at the weekend then that puts us right back into the mix again, so not everything is lost and we have to keep our goal in mind – the Heineken Cup – and how we are going to get there. On top of that we need to improve our home form certainly, and that also needs to start now.
“Bath is another massive game for us, and it’s one we can definitely win, but we have to bring our game together finally, the way we have been talking about.”
Two Willie Walker penalties pushed Worcester into a first-half lead at Sixways at the weekend, but Newcastle kept creating chances they failed to finish.
After the break the trend continued, and the Falcons wound up pushing the envelope too far and conceding a late try from Will Bowley that ended their hopes of a late comeback.
Frustrated to watch his men repeat the same mistakes of the last two weeks, Bates admitted the players are desperate to cut the sloppiness from their game and finally hit top form.
“We created quite a lot and we did fairly well in a lot of areas,” Bates continued, “so to end up on the wrong end of the result again is a big disappointment. But we felt we were good value for potentially a losing bonus point and maybe if we had been a bit more accurate, the win.
“Their try at the death was purely a symptom of us trying too hard to push the pace and force the issue, and we have to learn from that and make sure we don’t repeat that again.”
