Coach King wary of the challenge Saints will face at Falcons

Alex King says Saints are under no illusions as to how tough Newcastle will make it for them at Kingston Park on this afternoon.
Saints attack coach Alex King (Picture: Linda Dawson)Saints attack coach Alex King (Picture: Linda Dawson)
Saints attack coach Alex King (Picture: Linda Dawson)

And the attack coach admits his side are expecting a similar scrap to the one they sampled against Worcester last weekend.

Saints were made to work hard by the league’s bottom side, who eventually fell to a 30-14 defeat, their 14th in as many Premiership games this season.

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Newcastle are enduring a similarly bad run of form, losing their past eight league games, but King is not allowing that to creep into his team’s mindset ahead of the game there.

“We’re under no illusions about this weekend,” said King.

“It’s a tough, tough place to go is Newcastle and Dean Richards will have them well coached and well drilled.

“We played them at the Gardens and didn’t find them easy to break down, so we’ve done our homework this week, worked hard on where we think are opportunities, but away from home you’ve got to do the basics right.

“The defence has got to be spot on, we’ve got to attack well and take the points on offer and we’ve got to keep our discipline because they’ve got a very good goalkicker (Rory Clegg) who will punish us if we overstep the mark.”

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Saints secured an 18-0 success against the Falcons at Franklin’s Gardens in November, but it was far from easy.

Only six points separated the teams at the break in that game, and King knows his men must be patient again to earn their 10th successive Premiership win.

“We understand no one is going to roll over for us,” he said.

“Worcester proved that last week under Dean Ryan, and Dean Richards is a very good coach who knows what he’s doing.

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“Dean is good mates with Dorian West and probably knows Dorian better than anyone.

“It’s an exciting challenge to go up there. It’s another opportunity to keep our run going and get close to the objective we set out at the start of the season.”

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