I heard too much moaning on Friday.  Newcastle maybe bottom, but they are better than their current position.  We did not have the best games we will ever have, but we beat a good side doing what we had to do.  Teams don't win things by being negative in the dressing room.  Realistic yes, but not negative.  As a crowd on Friday we were not at our best either, but the team still came round applauding us and giving signed balls to youngsters.  For goodness sake we are 5th and building.  Yes last season was a low point, but come on pick yourselves up and enjoy.

Not sure there was that much negativity, not on here at least. We played pretty badly, particularly in the first half, when we could have had a bonus before half time. A better side would have punished s for those early errors.

It will take a while for the Stoop to start believing in the team, and they will have to suck that up given some of the horrendous performances we've had to endure over the past few seasons.

There were two or three lengthy injury periods in the first half, which always puts a dampener on things.

Also, so many latecomers during the first 20 minutes! The worst I have ever seen (North Stand).

Last season we would have lost that one, but we had it fairly comfortably controlled. We will play better than that and lose, but one of the foundations of a good side is being able to play below par and still win.

However, the key thing is that between 3rd and about 10th the table is very tight and one win or loss here or there could make or break the season. I am generally positive about the direction of travel this year, and I think we have some key players coming back into fitness in time for the second half of the season. If we can get some consistency - especially through the 6N (where it looks like we might have more of our internationals than usual) - we can go into the business end of the season with some momentum.

I thought that J P Doyle spoilt the game.  His reffing of the scrum was abysmal.  And I've never seen a yellow card for collapsing the scrum on the halfway line.  Just generally there was no consistency in his decision making. Gussy commented afterwards about Newcastle getting away with stuff.

Gussy commented afterwards about Newcastle getting away with stuff.

Well of course he did - that's par for the course with DoRs these days, across all teams. For what it's worth I thought JP had a pretty decent game on the whole.

He had already warned the Front Rows and the Captains that he had lost patience with the scrums not coming together properly or collapsing, and the next infringer would go to the bin.

Yep, the card was coming. Nothing wrong with it.

As the infringements up to that time were I believe fairly evenly spread he might have sent one off from each side.

Only if he thought both sides collapsed it. He obviously thought Boyce was at fault on that occasion, and as he'd given the warning, Boyce had to sit on the Naughty Step...