Northumbria Make Super Start!

Team Northumbria got their Super Rugby season off to a flier after dismantling Cardiff Met 57-16.

Josh Bragman starred on his debut as a rampant TN side ran in six tries in the first half alone and head coach of rugby Darren Fearn was delighted with the way the debutant handled the occasion.

“Josh did well, he really distributed well,” said Fearn. “He was like a puppet master, which is exactly what we want from him. 

"I was really chuffed with Josh and Jake Rodgers did well when he came on. In Josh and Jake, we’ve got two good 10s there. I thought the backs did very well. Like I say everyone was spot on in that first half.”

And while Fearn was delighted with the start his players made, he voiced his frustration with TN second half performance about his side’s second half performance.

“The way we started was the perfect way to start the game,” said Fearn.

“We were really happy with getting the five points, which was something we set out to do. So we were very happy with the first half first. But in the second half I wasn’t happy with the performance.

“We let Cardiff get points on the board and in theory we’ve lost the second half which isn’t good enough when you put a team under the cosh.

“We knew they were going to throw back, they’re not a bad team Cardiff. We knew they were going to come back at us and we let them do that.

“Overall, it was a very positive day, don’t get me wrong. If you ask me later in the week I’d probably have a different reflection of the game but I feel a bit annoyed at the moment because they’ve come away with something which I feel we shouldn’t have let them have. But fair play to them for getting it”.

TN have a tough fixture against Exeter on Tuesday with Fearn admitting that his side face a stern test against last year’s Super Rugby runners-up.

“We’ll go to Exeter with a bit of confidence but we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves because Exeter are a good team,” he added. “To get any points down there you have to work super hard, so the lads will need to enjoy the win but get back on it tomorrow to get ready to play the finalists from last year.”