Dean Richards: Newcastle Falcons will learn from Bath errors

Falcons were minutes away from a losing bonus point but Gavin Henson's penalty pulled Bath clear

Director of rugby Dean Richards believes his Newcastle Falcons squad will learn from the mistakes made in Saturday's 23-14 defeat by Bath.

Richards named a young side, with nine players aged 25 or under, for the trip to the West Country.

Falcons were minutes away from a losing bonus point, before conceding a late penalty that Bath converted.

"Naivety from our youngsters, giving away silly penalties, probably cost us," Richards told BBC Newcastle.

"That's life, and you learn from that, but the beauty for us is we do have a lot of youngsters. I'm looking forward to what they will bring."

Back-rower Sean Robinson, 23, made his debut in the game, while full-back Simon Hammersley and hooker George McGuigan, both 21, also featured.

"If you look at the ability, it was even on the day, but I felt we should have got something out of it," added Richards.

Newcastle's frustrations were increased by the occasionally wayward place-kicking of Argentine fly-half Juan Pablo Socino, who missed two first-half penalties.

They were also denied two tries by the television match official - but Richards had no complaints.

"They are what they are, if they're not tries, they're not tries," he said.

"We have to work out why individuals break off at the times they do, but we scored immediately afterwards so they're not missed opportunities, they're tries that went begging.

"We capitalised on those straight away afterwards."