Dean Richards conceded Newcastle had pulled off “a robbery” after their last-gasp 16-14 win at Northampton, while Johan Ackermann called for more from his Gloucester players, despite a convincing 36-16 home victory against Worcester.
At Franklin’s Gardens, Mark Wilson scored in the 86th minute to level the game at 14-14, with Toby Flood converting the winning points in front of the posts. The Falcons had struggled to get into the game after Cobus Reinach’s try double and two conversions from Dan Biggar left them trailing 14-6 with 10 minutes to play. But Brett Connon’s lengthy penalty and England international Wilson’s heroics at the end gave Newcastle their third win of the Premiership season and their sixth straight victory over the Saints.
“It was probably a robbery if we’re honest,” Richards, Newcastle’s director of rugby, said after his side had moved off the bottom, at least until Sale play Bath on Sunday. “But we took our chance at the end and our work ethic was fantastic.
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“We said during the week, providing we’re in with a shout with 10 minutes to go, we’ll stand every chance of winning. We didn’t play that well for the first 60 minutes. We tidied our game up for the final quarter and played in the right areas. In the end it could have been a penalty try but nobody likes to win that way, so I was happy we won it by scoring a try.
“Northampton are a good team, they missed a couple of opportunities and if they had taken those it could have been a different thing altogether.”
Saints director of rugby Chris Boyd said the loss was difficult to take, especially on Dylan Hartley’s landmark 250th appearance for the club. Boyd said: “It’s a bitter pill to swallow. We can blame the last five or six minutes, but I felt the game should have been put well to bed by then. We had enough opportunities to score more tries, which would have made it a different game.
“Dylan said it wasn’t about his 250th game. It was about getting four or five points against Newcastle, so we’re disappointed we couldn’t respect that for him. You hit the canvas, but you have to get up and fight again.”
At Kingsholm, Ollie Thorley scored two tries for Gloucester, with James Hanson, Jaco Visagie, Freddie Clarke and Charlie Sharples also crossing and Billy Twelvetrees adding three conversions. Bryce Heem scored Worcester’s sole try, with Duncan Weir kicking the conversion and three penalties, but they were only 10-9 down at half‑time.
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Ackerman said: “I’m satisfied with the win and very pleased with the extra point against a quality side. We knew we had to start well and we became confident by scoring two well-constructed tries but then there was a phase where we made silly mistakes and our discipline let us down. We couldn’t believe we were only point ahead at half-time but we took the interval messages on board to start the second half well and be more accurate.”
The Worcester director of rugby, Alan Solomons, had no complaints. He said: “We were outmuscled and they were on top for most of the game. Chris Pennell’s yellow card made no difference to the result. The physicality of their pack was crucial and they dominated the collisions but we could have played better.”