Bates furious as another victory squandered.

SLAMMING his Newcastle Falcons for slumping to a third draw in four Premiership games, Steve Bates demanded his players take responsibility.

The furious Falcons rugby director was unimpressed with another game thrown away from a winning position, Newcastle letting Quins steal a 17-17 draw.

Despite first-half tries from Tane Tu'ipulotu and Tim Swinson, the Falcons' penalty misdemeanours handed Quins a route back into the match, and Nick Evans delivered with four penalties and Ugo Monye their solitary try. It was enough to grab a draw and leave ex-Wasps scrum-half Bates cursing the mini meltdown.

Annoyed his side did not stay strong in defence, especially when considering the Quins attack did not look too threatening, Bates said: "The really frustrating thing is that our defence looks rock solid.

"Nobody's looked like they are going to threaten us too much, so there's no reason to be giving penalties away. "We shot ourselves in both feet, both hands and right between the eyes as well in the second half.

"We threw the game away through getting a bit carried away, certainly through overzealous defence - and it has cost us the win.

"We handed them kickable penalties which is very frustrating.

"The players are disappointed with themselves, and now have to take some responsibility.

"Some of it is down to over-zealousness at the breakdown and around the tackle area.

"Trying to make the game work for us, and maybe working too hard in the event to make it function cost us dearly. "Some of the penalties we conceded were in an attempt to stop them attacking but didn't seem to show much understanding of the laws.

"It's a strange set of results, and it's really frustrating to give away another penalty under the posts just like we did against Sale to give away the win.

"I didn't think Sale had to work very hard to get their points here, and I didn't think Quins had to work very hard either. "That's extremely disappointing, and the players have to stand up and take some responsibility for that.

"Some of our decisionmaking lacks a clarity of thought, but sometimes we are not thinking clearly enough about where we are on the field and what the consequences of our actions are.

"We've thrown away three games where we should have won now, that would have given us six more points and would have left us in a much stronger position in the league."