Dean Richards rues lack of discipline following Newcastle's defeat to London Irish

Newcastle Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards cited lack of discipline as the reason behind the 14-42 defeat to London Irish in the recently concluded Gallagher Premiership game.

Even though both the teams were levelled by the opening quarter, Sean Robinson, who was one of the try-scorer for the Falcons was sin-binned in the 23rd minute and the Exiles made full use of the numerical advantage with tries from Albert Tuisue and Agustin Creevy.

Even though Newcastle clawed their way back into the game with Benjamin Stevenson's try at the stroke of half-time, they could not add any points in the second half with Gary Graham's red card in the 78th minute adding to their woes.

“They scored twice in the period of our first yellow card which gave them that lead, but we came back to 28-14 at half-time and gave ourselves a shout.

“It’s amazing how much a yellow card costs you – they say two tries is about average, and that’s how it turned out tonight.

“We clawed one back just before half-time and then came out with ten minutes of good pressure at the start of the second half, but we couldn’t convert it into points.”

Richards also gave credit to London Irish for their performance as they now move to the seventh place in the table with nine victories from 22 games.

“To be fair to Irish, you look down their team sheet and they’ve got a hell of a side.

“It gives you a measure of their quality when they have guys like Creevy, Simmons, Coleman, Mafi and guys like that up front, and then Paddy Jackson at fly-half was outstanding.

“Our boys stuck at it, and it just became a little bit fragmented at the end with the way Irish play.

“Credit to them, they took their chances, and they’re a good side."