{"id":388819,"date":"2026-01-03T10:49:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-03T10:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388819\/"},"modified":"2026-01-03T10:49:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T10:49:08","slug":"the-newcastle-red-bulls-reaction-to-first-prem-win-of-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/388819\/","title":{"rendered":"The Newcastle Red Bulls reaction to first PREM win of season"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Newcastle<\/a> head coach Alan Dickens praised a \u201cfantastic\u201d performance as his side clinched their first Gallagher Prem win of the season with a 25-19 victory over Gloucester.<\/p>\n

George McGuigan and Tom Christie<\/a> went over for the hosts at Kingston Park either side of yellow cards for Jamie Hodgson<\/a> and Arthur Clark<\/a> before Ollie Thorley<\/a> replied for Gloucester.<\/p>\n

Brett Connon\u2019s penalty gave Newcastle a 15-5 lead at the break and Simon Benitez Cruz<\/a> grounded shortly after the restart to extend their advantage further.<\/p>\n

Thorley was shown red for Gloucester<\/a> before Connon kicked another penalty and Newcastle withstood a late fightback after converted tries from Mikey Austin and Ciaran Knight<\/a> suddenly closed the gap from 25-5 to 25-19.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the game, Dickens said: \u201cI think the performance from the players was fantastic tonight.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got off to a really good start. Credit to Gloucester, they came back at us midway through the second half and they had the momentum.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the pleasing things was we made the changes, the replacements came on and that defensive display they put in was fantastic and we kept them out.<\/p>\n

\u201cLots of positives, so pleased with Oscar Usher<\/a> going up at the lineout at the end and nicking the ball. Really pleased for the players.\u201d<\/p>\n

Newcastle remain at the foot of the table with one win from nine outings, but Dickens praised his players for their performances across the season so far.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI would\u2019ve preferred us to be 15 points up going into the last two minutes but as I said, credit to Gloucester.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s an understatement to say I\u2019m really pleased or relieved. The players have been fantastic all season long and I know tonight in terms of \u2013 certainly the way we\u2019ve built over the last five or six weeks \u2013 we\u2019ve felt it coming.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who\u2019ve watched or reported on the team have seen that. Today we put in a performance.<\/p>\n

\u201cStarted really quickly, got some points on the board. We were probably disappointed in the first half not to have scored a couple more, but we\u2019ll take the win tonight and move on to the next game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington was pleased with his side\u2019s \u201cendeavour\u201d despite slipping to an eighth league loss.<\/p>\n

The injury-hit Cherry and Whites had Hartpury RFC loanee Will Crane<\/a> start at hooker, while 18-year-old Will Knight<\/a> made his first Prem start.<\/p>\n

Skivington said: \u201cSame story as the last couple of weeks in terms of attack, we made a lot of line-breaks, didn\u2019t finish enough of them off.<\/p>\n

\u201cEspecially in the first half we had a couple of good opportunities down that far channel and dropped the ball. Little connections at the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t really go at the lads for the way they\u2019re attacking. Combinations they\u2019re playing at have changed every week this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got a handful of 18-year-olds out there, a couple of nines who\u2019ve never played in the Prem, a hooker who turned up on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is what it is. They are playing with endeavour, working hard, it\u2019s just those connections aren\u2019t what they were last year at the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Newcastle head coach Alan Dickens praised a \u201cfantastic\u201d performance as his side clinched their first Gallagher Prem win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-388819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}