‘We don’t want to be plucky losers’

Newcastle boss Steve Diamond was frustrated his side failed to capitalise on Tigers’ ill-discipline to end their losing run.

Diamond said: “We don’t want to be plucky losers. We’re here to win and didn’t get it.

“It was a unique game, the match officials were probably as confused as we were in the last 15 minutes.

“We do a lot of things right but we were like a kid in a sweetshop for those last 10 minutes. We just didn’t seem to know how we needed to play to score a try, and Leicester were very streetwise in knowing how to slow the game down when they had only 12 or 13 men.

“Our inability to score was the only downside of the day.”

On watching the final minutes, Leicester’s Jack van Poortvliet said: “We were focused on working out who we had on the field, how we defend their scrum advantage, be disciplined and just run and fight as hard as you can to keep them out.

“The amount of distance our boys covered to go beyond the full distance was unbelievable, it shows the spirit we have in the changing room.”