NEWCASTLE first team coach Alan Tait has called on the Falcons to use last weekend’s win at Bath as the springboard for their season, as Worcester Warriors are the Guinness Premiership visitors to Kingston Park on Sunday.

Looking for his side to continue their ascent up the table following their 27-16 triumph at The Rec with a fourth successive bonus point victory, Tait said: “We’d like to think we’ve turned the corner. But we always knew it was going to take time with so many players joining the club over the summer.

“If I’m totally honest I thought it would be after Christmas before the players got properly in-synch with one another, so I’m delighted that it has started to happen before then.”

Highlighting a renewed optimism around Kingston Park, the dual-code Lions and Scotland star said: “You can see going round the ground today that the boys have the smile back on their faces, their chests are puffed out just that little bit extra and it’s a good place to be again.

“The best thing is that they know it’s just a starting point.

All we’ve done is reach base camp and we have another massive game this Sunday against Worcester to really get the season up and running.

The focus moves entirely on to the next game.

“Last year we drew against them up here when we felt we should have won, so you could say there’s a bit of unfinished business.

“Worcester are a dogged side. They will make it difficult for us but we really believe in our system and our ability to score tries. They will be coming here desperate to upset our run, so we’ve got to turn up and perform again.

“They got a losing bonus point recently at Leicester and last weekend against Harlequins, so we know they’re a difficult team to shake off.

They make it hard to score and we also have to be wary about kicking the ball downfield when they have class like Chris Latham to fire it back with interest.

“The key to the whole thing is trying to break their spirit up front. That’s what has been pleasing for me in the past two games, the fact that our forwards have really taken that challenge on after Steve Bates had some pretty blunt words following the Padova game.

They were second best in Italy, but they’ve taken it on the chin and really fronted up.

They’ll need to do the same on Sunday, because this Worcester pack are very physical.”

With their recent European sojourn breathing added life into the Falcons’ campaign, Tait said: “The Challenge Cup has given us a bit of space, and although we didn’t really perform against Petrarca Padova in the opening match, we battled well and got the bonus point we needed.”