After dire season Newcastle make frank admission about recent recruits

Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington was relieved as his side put last week’s humiliating 90-0 defeat behind them as they convincingly beat Gallagher Premiership bottom club Newcastle 54-14 at Kingsholm.

The eight-try victory put Gloucester in good spirits ahead of next Friday’s European Challenge Cup final at Tottenham when they will seek to pick up a second trophy for the season having already secured the Premiership Cup back in March.

Zach Mercer, Chris Harris, Charlie Atkinson, Ollie Thorley, Seb Blake, Jonny May, Alex Hearle and Josh Hathaway scored their tries with Caolan Englefield converting five. Stephen Varney and Santiago Socino each added a conversion.

Jamie Blamire and Matias Moroni scored Newcastle’s tries as Brett Connon added the extras.

Skivington said: “I was concerned about the scoreline last week and in the close season, I will need to review that in some detail as to how we conceded so many points.

“It was a totally different team and I thought we completed our league season with a bang to give a decent send off to some of our leading players.

“We didn’t have a lot of possession in the first half as a tricky Newcastle side competed hard in the set-piece but we took our chances clinically.

“We lacked a little bit of discipline in the first half but we rectified that and showed good attitude and fight to finish the Kingsholm season in style.”

For Newcastle it is was another miserable afternoon of woe as they finished their league fixtures winless and with a mere five points on the board from their 18 matches.

As a result they emulated Rotherham and London Welsh as the two previous sides, who finished a Premiership season winless but on both those occasions there were 22 games.

Their consultant director of rugby Steve Diamond said: “We had the better of the first half but they took all their three opportunities from three of our turnovers.

“Realistically it’s the tale of our season as we have regularly failed to take our chances and it has certainly cost us.

“It will now be a transitional period for us as Newcastle’s recruitment hasn’t been fantastic in recent seasons as you can bring one or two Championship players in but not en-masse as you then become a Championship team.

“We need eight or nine new players, who are hard-wearing and durable and experienced Premiership performers.

“The task won’t be easy as you can’t transform a bottom side into a top-four one but all we can do is to try and move away from the bottom and certainly be more competitive, especially at home.”