Newcastle director of rugby Steve Bates defended his selection policy during his side's winless LV= Cup campaign.
Bates pleased despite Newcastle's LV= Cup failure
Newcastle director of rugby Steve Bates defended his selection policy during the Falcons' winless LV= Cup campaign.
Newcastle lost all four of their fixtures with Bates opting to give his fringe players plenty of game time during the Anglo-Welsh competition.
Former Falcon David Walder, captaining Wasps for the first time, kicked three penalties to send Newcastle tumbling to a 9-3 defeat at Kingston Park in their final pool match.
It was an error-filled contest in which all but two of the 16 players on the respective benches were used.
"The four weeks of this competition were all about giving some players a run and others a rest and that's worked," said Bates.
Valuable
"Some of our younger players have put their hands up and some of our fringe players have been given valuable game time.
"It was pretty close today and Wasps just edged it. The players are pretty frustrated and tired.
"We should have scored at the end but that summed up the day for us, we just kept throwing the ball away."
Newcastle were out of contention for the quarter-finals after last weekend's defeat at Cardiff, while Wasps had also already been eliminated.
Some big names were missing for the visitors because of Six Nations and England Saxons duty, with Walder leading Wasps instead of Joe Worsley, who pulled out with illness during the warm-up.
Great job
"The players out there deserve that," said Wasps director of rugby Tony Hanks.
"They did a great job today and it was hard to get any pace going on that pitch and in the conditions, but we won it in the end.
"The next four weeks is all about building towards the end of the season and making the play offs, but we have to play well over those four weeks to achieve our objectives.
"We had a few players today making their first appearances in certain positions and we lost Joe (Worsley) in the warm-up and did well to get 35 minutes out of Joe Ward, who was also feeling unwell."