Tigers seeking ruthless edge

"We were inaccurate, Newcastle played well and they made us work hard," said the Tigers director of rugby after a 22-10 victory which kept Tigers in third place in the Premiership table with just one defeat in the opening seven rounds.

Tigers claimed tries from Telusa Veainu, Peter Betham and Laurence Pearce against Falcons but missed out on a bonus-point score, although both Veainu and Mathew Tait had tries ruled out by the referee after consultation with the television match official about whether the ball had been grounded.

"We're bitterly disappointed with how we played, but you take the four points," added Cockerill. "There were a lot of opportunities left out there and chances we should have taken but didn't.

"We turned over ball cheaply at times, we kicked the ball away and we were pretty ordinary today.

"If you cannot put the ball down over the line at some point it comes back to haunt you, but we take the win and go from there. I thought Tait's disallowed try could have gone either way and you would like to see the benefit of any doubt going to the attacking side.

"But we're doing some good things, we created opportunities and we are disappointed because they are the standards we set. Sometimes it just doesn't click.

"We go to Saracens next week and we've got to be a lot better than we were here in terms of accuracy and physicality."