NEWCASTLE Falcons’ latest captain Russell Winter hailed his side’s resilience in triumph at Brive – then immediately set his sights on lifting the European Challenge Cup. The former South Africa A captain became the fifth man to lead the Falcons this campaign in Friday’s 19-12 win at Parc Municipal, stepping in for not just club captain Phil Dowson, but also the missing Jamie Noon. Falcons director of rugby John Fletcher told how Winter’s tear-jerking team talk on Thursday night set the tone for a gritty performance, inspiring Toby Flood to scoot home for a well-worked try and Jonny Wilkinson to boot the other 14 points. As unassuming as ever, Winter shunned the praise, turning instead to the performance of his teammates in all-but setting up another quarter-final appearance. Winter said a win ground in granite was always on the cards after a first 10 minutes in which the Falcons proved to their French adversaries they could not be pushed around. Winter said: "The speech was just one of those things – I didn’t prepare anything, I just wanted to tell the lads how I felt about each and every one of them. "I spoke to Batesy and asked if I could say a few words, and that was all it was about really. "I don’t tend to speak too much, I am not that vocal around the team, so I just felt that as I was captain for the day I would make my feelings known. "I still always consider Phil Dowson as my captain, and he is a fantastic team leader, but I wanted to gee the lads up, and hopefully I managed it. "The lads worked their socks off and the win was all down to the fact that we won a lot of ball and used it well. "I strongly believe that we can win this competition and it would be a great feeling to lift a trophy with this fantastic bunch of guys." Despite driving rain and a sodden pitch, Newcastle took the fight to Brive right from the first whistle. After an early jitter where Luciano Orquera nearly undid a sluggish defence with a neat chip kick, Newcastle got going and pushed Brive around up front. Led ably by Winter, the Falcons eight took control even if the Italian referee let both sides get away with a fair bit of mischief. Crucially the Falcons kept their discipline while Brive did not, only losing one man to the sin-bin compared to the home side’s two. Flood grabbed the game’s only try after a clever dink into space by Wilkinson, and Wilko smashed the other points in tricky kicking conditions. His perfect record with the boot summed what was basically a perfect night for Fletcher’s men, who must surely be buoyed by two straight away wins and three victories on the bounce. With Cetransa El Salvador heading to Kingston Park on Sunday, Newcastle can top the pool and in all probability set up a home tie in the last eight should they garner the expected bonus point win. From there on in, Winter and Co will rightly be chasing that silverware dream. | 
