Newcastle Falcons director of rugby Dean Richards praised “outstanding” Cumbrian Gary Graham for his try-scoring debut in his side’s 32-27 win over Dragons.

As Falcons named a much-changed team for their European Challenge Cup opener at Kingston Park on Saturday, former Carlisle Rugby Club man Graham made his debut, while Mark Wilson captained the team.

Both Cumbrians crossed the whitewash as the Newcastle side took the full five points from the match against the Welsh side.

Summer signing Graham, son of former Scotland international George Graham, who had previously lived in Harraby with his family, was one of the players singled out for praise by ex-England and British Lions international Richards.

“I thought Gary Graham was outstanding in the back row, as was Ryan Burrows, and you had guys like Maxime Mermoz and Toby Flood benefiting from getting a full 80 minutes into them,” Richards said to Falcons’ website.

“For those guys to get through that amount of work was great, and I thought Gary in particular was fantastic.”

Newcastle’s other try-scorers were Rob Vickers and Adam Radwan.

But, despite the victory, Richards admitted his team had made hard work of it.

He said: “We’ve sat down and had a chat about it in the changing room, and we’re a bit frustrated about it to be honest with you.

“We were inaccurate in certain areas, we had four new starters in key positions and that does make a difference. Perhaps we tried to push it a little too much at times.

“The Dragons aren’t a bad side and we handed them a few chances, plus we didn’t capitalise on a few of our own.

“Ordinarily we wouldn’t do that, but we pulled through in the end and just about got the job done.”

Carlisle lad Chris Harris also came off the bench in Newcastle’s success on Saturday, before he returned to Carlisle Rugby Club on Sunday to help out with a Falcons community initiative.