Dickens sees Newcastle take 'steps forward'

Alan Dickens worked at Leicester Tigers before joining Newcastle last year

Newcastle Red Bulls head coach Alan Dickens says there are some "shoots of improvement" for his side despite their position at the bottom of the Prem.

The Red Bulls have lost all of their first four games to sit in last place, three points behind Gloucester.

But there were marked improvements in their 36-19 loss to Northampton Saints last time out, with impressive contributions from some of their new arrivals.

"The players were very disappointed when they came in after the Sale game," he said.

"There was still disappointment when the players came in this week, but they could see the shoots of improvement.

"We've got to focus on that and hopefully the wins will come."

Stefan Coetzee scored a try on his Newcastle debut against Northampton

In front of a second successive sold-out crowd at Kingston Park, South African full-back Stefan Coetzee scored a try with his first touch in Prem Rugby, Japan back-rower Amanaki Mafi scored his first try in England and Argentina scrum-half Simon Benitez Cruz impressed on his first start.

Late in the second half they thought they had levelled the game at 26-26, only to have a fourth try disallowed before Northampton added 10 more points to distort the final scoreline.

But the step-up in quality that Newcastle showed in long periods is driving standards up in training, while it is fuelling Dickens' belief that the Red Bulls can be more competitive as they round off the opening stretch of league games with a visit to Harlequins on Saturday (15:00 BST).

"The new guys have settled in very well," he said.

"Benitez Cruz is a very exciting player at nine and it wasn't a bad start for Stefan, scoring in the corner with his first touch, so there were a lot of positives.

"We made some steps forward. Our job this week is to build on last week and finish this block of five games on a high."