Steve Diamond laments '3 or 4 minutes of madness' in Newcastle loss

Gloucester boss George Skivington admitted his side’s 26-12 win over Newcastle was “not particularly pretty” but expressed his pride as they secured a crucial bonus point.

Victory keeps the Cherry and Whites’ Gallagher Premiership play-off hopes alive as they move into fifth place in the standings.

Having lost to Harlequins last week, an important five points at Kingston Park keeps Gloucester in the mix for the top four and their play-off race concludes with a final-day clash against Northampton.

Reflecting on the game, director of rugby Skivington said: “I think there was a few opportunities in the second half, I think Newcastle are actually playing pretty well, I said that coming into the game – they’ve got some real threats.

“I think we were probably a pass away from scoring tries I don’t know how many times.

Gallagher Premiership

P

W

L

D

PF

PA

PD

BP T

BP-7

BP

Total

1

Bath

16

13

3

0

66

2

Leicester

16

10

5

1

56

3

Sale

17

11

6

0

54

4

Bristol

17

9

8

0

53

5

Gloucester

17

9

8

0

51

6

Saracens

16

9

7

0

49

7

Harlequins

16

7

8

1

43

8

Northampton

16

7

9

0

38

9

Exeter Chiefs

16

4

12

0

26

10

Newcastle

17

2

15

0

13

“The boys want to play, we’re backing them to play, but there’s probably a balance there that if we want to get a few more tries, maybe use our set-piece a bit more.

“That’s the pessimistic side of me where I think we could be better. The reality is we’ve come up here under a lot of pressure really.

“We know the opportunity blown last week. We know we’re hanging in there and hoping.

“The only thing we can do is get five points and the boys did that tonight so I’m proud of them for that.

“This fixture is teed up to be Newcastle’s last game, (Callum) Chick and (Jamie) Blamire leaving, all the things that can go against you, the boys found a way. It wasn’t particularly pretty, but they found a way.”

Ben Stevenson put the Falcons ahead, but Gloucester took the lead when Chris Harris crossed and yellow cards for Newcastle back-row duo Chick and Cameron Neild allowed the visitors to storm ahead with a penalty try before Seb Atkinson struck.

Harris was sin-binned just minutes into the second half and Jack Cotgreave then bagged the all-important bonus point for Gloucester when he touched down in the corner.

Joe Davis pulled a try back for Newcastle but it was not enough to threaten Gloucester and the hosts were reduced to 14 men late on when Stevenson was shown red for an aerial challenge on Santi Carreras.

Newcastle director of rugby Steve Diamond described his group as a “nearly team” as they slumped to a 15th league loss of the campaign.

The bottom-of-the-table side are without a league win since November 29 and face Leicester on the final day.

Diamond said: “We could possibly have nicked something at the end but we had three or four minutes of madness at the end of the first half which saw us go down to 13 men, and then a red card towards the end.

“We stuck in it but fair play to Gloucester, they’re a good team this year and fully deserved their win.

“We did score a couple of really good tries and I was pleased with a lot of the performances, but we’re that ‘nearly’ team at the moment.

“That sums up our season. We could have got more out of it but we didn’t, and it’s part of the learning curve that we’re on.

“Hopefully that will be one of the last losses we have here for a long time.”