Star Wilson hailed as NEWCASTLE FALCONS 11 HARLEQUINS 10
Mark Wilson in action during his 200th appearance for the Falcons NEWCASTLE director of rugby Dean Richards hailed Mark Wilson’s consistency as the Falcons beat Harlequins on the day the back-rower made his 200th appearance for the club.
Wilson’s Harlequins rival Chris Robshaw played his 250th game for the visitors but all he had to celebrate at Kingston Park was a moment of recognition before the match and the consolation of a losing bonus point.
Richards said: “Mark Wilson has done incredibly well to clock up 200 games at the age of 28.
“He never turns in a poor performance and he should be rightly proud of what he has done.”
Richards is aiming for a healthy Christmas and New Year points haul and added: “We said before the start of the Christmas period, ‘There are games to be won here, let’s go out and win them’.”
With one victory for the festive season under their belt, Newcastle face London Irish next week and then Exeter.
Richards said: “If we win two out of three I will be reasonably happy, if it is all three I will be delighted and if it is just one out of three I will be pretty upset and so will the boys.
“It is not so long ago people were talking about us losing three or four but the season goes like that, it is the nature of the game.
“It is not about top six or whatever, it is always about winning the next game and the key to it is trying to make sure everything falls into place at the right time.
“Sometimes it doesn’t and the trick is to try and make sure it does.
“It was nearly a full house today and the boys love playing in front of a big crowd and they enjoyed it.”
He added: “It was a good game and no-one was going home early.
“We went 11-0 up and should have had two more tries, but we didn’t.
“Quins are a good team and we knew they would come back at us and they did. They attacked us a slightly different way and we struggled with that for the first 10 minutes of the second half and then we got on with it.” Richards’ opposite number John Kingston thought his side had done enough for the win.
He said: “It was a bit of tightrope but we were far too inaccurate.
“They had the rub of the green but that often happens when you play at home and it is a very difficult place to win.
“They had a lot of the ball in the first 20 minutes but we felt we were the better team after that.
“Ultimately, we were not quite accurate enough, but we move on.
“We have two very big important games coming up and we hope to have Danny Care back soon.”
Care suffered a head knock earlier this month. Harlequins are in action next on December 30 when they host Northampton before tackling Sale Sharks the following week.