Gaffney upbeat despite defeat

5:20pm Sunday 17th February 2008

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ALAN GAFFNEY was in reflective mood after Newcastle Falcons completed a league double over Saracens this afternoon.

Jonny Wilkinson's penalty 90 seconds from time won the game for John Fletcher's men while piling on the misery for the Men in Black for the second time inside two months.

But Gaffney, who said he had no qualms about Wilkinson's late strike, refused to berate his team after producing a fine second half display that put them within a whisker of their first win at Kingston Park since 2003.

"That's twice this season we've lost to a last minute penalty," said the director of rugby referring to Dimitri Yachvili's winning kick in Biarritz last year. "It's not pleasant but we've got to be tough and close games out, but we didn't do that today. There is no point crying about it.

"We were not as accurate as we should have been and didn't make the most of the opportunities we created."

"The penalty decision late on was correct and that's the way life is," added the Aussie. "I thought the referee (David Rose) refereed the game quite well.

"Winning away from home would have been a plus as you can see it's a tight competition now. It is results like these that can hurt you as the season progresses."

Gaffney, who expects to have centre Kevin Sorrell and full-back Brent Russell available for next Sunday's home match against Harlequins confirmed Andy Farrell had suffered a recurrence of a rib injury that forced him off just 20 minutes into the game.

"It's his ribs and the injury looks like it's the same one (that kept him out for the last two games)," commented Gaffney. "He's walking but found it uncomfortable in the contact area. We don't yet know how long he will be out for."