It was a miserable afternoon for the hosts and director of rugby Dean Richards said they must cut out the errors.

“It was a disappointing performance from us today, we didn’t do as we had been planning and what we had rehearsed in training,” he said.

“It’s important that we pick ourselves up now as we’ve had a couple of disappointing results in a row and we need to get ourselves back on the right track and start picking up the wins again.

“Heading into the European break, it might give us a chance to forget about the last couple of league games and to turn our attention to Europe and make a push in that.

“However, I thought we were on top in those opening stages of the game. It shows our attacking intent and the way that we want to play when we turn down the opportunity to kick for goal and go for the corner in the early stages of games.

“The first try was somewhat against the run of play, and I think if we had held out a little longer it may have given us more confidence.” 

Match details

Scores: 3-0 Hodgson pen, 3-5 Collins try, 3-7 Biggar con, 3-10 Biggar pen, 3-15 Skosan try, 3-17 Biggar con, 3-20 Biggar pen, 3-23 Biggar dropped goal, 8-23 McGuigan try, 8-28 Matavesi try, 8-30 Biggar con, 8-35 Furbank try, 8-37 Biggar con, 8-42 James try, 8-44 Furbank con.

Newcastle: Brown; Orlando (Wacokecoke 6), Burrell, Earle, Carreras; Hodgson (B Connon 56), Schreuder; Cooper (Brocklebank 50), McGuigan (Blamire 60), Davison (Tampin 50), Peterson, Robinson, Van Der Walt, Welch (c, Graham 60), Chick (Fearns 50).

Sub not used: Stuart.

Yellow card: Van Der Walt (28).

Northampton Furbank; Skosan, Dingwall (Litchfield 41), Hutchinson, Collins; Biggar (Freeman 65), Mitchell (James 65); Waller (Iyogun 65), Matavesi (Fish 65), Hill (Painter 69), Ribbans, Ratuniyarawa (Coles 65), Wood, Ludlam, Harrison (Wilkins 65).

Yellow card: Harrison (28).

Referee: Matthew Carley (RFU).