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JONES TAKES LEARNINGS FROM BRISTOL LOSS
Head coach Stephen Jones believes his Newcastle Red Bulls side will have learned from the experience of Friday’s 52-19 home loss to Bristol Bears.
Speaking after the Gallagher PREM encounter at Kingston Park, the Welshman said: “I was happy with parts of our performance and there were a lot of good learnings for our guys despite the obvious disappointment of defeat.
“When we turn over the ball we need to transition into defence better than we did tonight, and conceding a try from a restart was a huge momentum swing which we can’t afford.
“Those are the kinds of moments this team has to learn from, but there was also a lot we could take from the evening.
“I thought Josh Hodge, Christian Wade and Elliott Obatoyinbo worked extremely hard as a back three. We asked lots of questions, their work rate was very good and the amount of touches and line-breaks they had I thought was top drawer.
“What we need to keep on driving is that punch through the middle, because once you win collisions more often it helps those boys to find the space out wide. I thought Naki Mafi brought some of that when he came on from the bench, but it’s something you need in a rugby team just in terms of building your attack.”
Jones added: “If you look how that game finished tonight, we had a couple of teenagers on the field, a guy making his debut in a top-level club game and so on, and they’re all really big honours for those boys.
“I thought some of our young lads did really well, to be fair, and as disappointed as we are by the result I know this will have been a valuable learning experience for them.
“Reuben Parsons I thought had a very good game in the back row, and those are the green shoots that we can take from these situations.
“I’m proud of how they have represented themselves and the club, but yes of course there’s a real thirst and desire to improve our results.”
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