Another scintillating display of rugby from Team Northumbria ensured that they continued their flying start to this year’s Super Rugby season as they defeated Nottingham Trent 32-7 under the Friday night lights of Kingston Park.
Heading into half time, TN had already secured a bonus point meaning they already have more bonus points this season then last year. And when the whistle blew for full time, it meant that the hosts were top of the league.
Coach Darren Fearn was delighted with the performance of his two debutants Jake Rodgers and Jonathan Ashman.
“I thought Jake and Jonny did really well in their first starts for Northumbria,” said Fearn.
“Jonny’s defensive shots were huge. He took a bit of a knock but picked himself back up and showed he’s a tough character so I was really happy with him.
“Jonny actually had a dead leg just before half time and we were under the cosh at the time. He just got up and put his body on the line. We’d have been down to 13 without Jonny just before half time so I was really proud.
“Jake showed us what he’s about.
“Jake does some things you wouldn’t expect like his chip for the second try. He’s a clever rugby player and in broken field he’s pretty good. He showed some glimpses of brilliance which is what Jake’s all about.
“So overall I was more than happy with them."
TN were three tries up during the first half and the opportunity to kick to the corner was available to Fearn’s side. Instead they opted to kick the penalty, a decision that delighted Fearn.
“I was really happy with that,” Fearn said.
“We talked about that. Building a lead is a psychological over the opposition so it really does knock them a bit.
“I think those couple of penalties pushed the score out of reach early on. Thirty sounds a lot more difficult than 20 so I was really happy that we chose to build up a lead.”
And while Fearn was happy with one element of his side's game management, he emphasised the need for TN to keep their foot on the gas and rid their game of penalties that could prove costly.
“It’s a weird one, once we put ourselves in a position to defend we defended well," he added. "We got out of that situation, only to put ourselves straight back in danger.
“These mistakes have proved costly already. Cardiff and Loughborough have both come here and taken a point away and we don’t play them at home again, so it could really prove costly.
“There’s stuff we need to reassess, there’s stuff we need to address and namely around the second half. But we’ll look at that as coaches.
“We’ve got to play better than we did in the second half otherwise we’ll get beaten.
“It’s a weird one because I’m annoyed but I’m more happy overall. We got the five points and set out what we needed to do tonight.”
.jpg_62276aa9abc9d.png)
