DEAN RICHARDS insists he has no intention of leaving Newcastle Falcons despite his current contract being due to expire at the end of the season.

In his two-and-a-half years at Kingston Park, Richards has guided Falcons to promotion from the Championship and helped establish the club on a firm footing in the Aviva Premiership.

Their performances in the current campaign have represented another significant step forward, and seen Richards’ name linked with clubs both at home and abroad.

Falcons managing director Mick Hogan this week expressed a determination to hold on to the 51-year-old, who has successfully rehabilitated himself following his three-year suspension in the wake of his role in the ‘Bloodgate’ scandal that engulfed his former club Harlequins.

Richards has previously spoken of his long-term plan for Falcons, and is adamant he will not be leaving while his work remains incomplete.

When asked whether remaining at Kingston Park was his preferred option, he said: “Yes, very much so. I’m happy here. We will sit down in time, but I’m quite relaxed about it.”

Newcastle might still be in the bottom three of the table ahead of Sunday’s home game with a London Welsh side who are still to claim a league win this season, but their placing in tenth spot does not really reflect the improvement in their play that has been apparent in recent months.

The adoption of a more expansive style, fuelled in part by the move to a new 4G artificial surface at Kingston Park, has seen Falcons score 26 tries already this season, three more than they managed in the whole of the last campaign.

Their last three matches have seen them push three of the leading teams in the league – Harlequins, Saracens and Northampton – extremely close, only to suffer a trio of narrow defeats, but this weekend's game offers a golden opportunity to finally put another win on the board.

Newcastle’s players will have to deal with the pressure of starting as firm favourites for a change, but having claimed a four-try bonus point at Northampton last weekend, it would be a major surprise if they did not become the latest team to inflict yet more misery on a London Welsh side who look completely out of their depth.

“We’re going well,” said Richards. “The boys are training with smiles on their faces, playing well and scoring tries. We just need to win.

“Our last three games were particularly difficult games. We probably came out of them with a lot of credit, but we need to start nailing these games and winning them. It’s not just about attractive rugby, but about winning games.

“This week is all about performance, ensuring that what we do is done to the best of our ability. If we do that, and do it for 80 minutes, then we’ll be fine.”

Newcastle’s first season back in the Premiership was a struggle, but whereas London Welsh chairman Bleddyn Phillips has complained about the financial inequalities within the top-flight, Richards feels newly-promoted clubs should not moan about a lack of resources.

“They (London Welsh) can spend up to whatever they want to spend up to,” he said. “If they haven’t got the budget to do that, and you have to live within your budgetary constraints, then so be it.

“We are in no different a position to them in that respect. We have our budgets, and we work to them. Obviously our budgets are considerably less than those of Leicester, Saracens, Bath and some of these other sides. But that’s the way it is. We’ve accepted it, and we get on with it.”

Newcastle Falcons: Hammersley, Sinoti, Powell, Socino, Tait, Catterick, Blair; Vickers, Lawson, Brookes, Green, Furno, M Wilson, Welch, Hogg.

Replacements: McGuigan, Fry, Orlandi, Thompson, R Mayhew, Tipuna, Harris, Al Tuilagi.