The encouragement for Newcastle on Saturday came from enjoying more possession and more territory than their opponents, gaining more metres – and they did finish with a losing bonus point.
But Newcastle could not quite take advantage of possession late on to overturn the five-point deficit as an uplifting result remained out of their grasp.
Next up is a trip to Exeter Chiefs on Sunday (15:00 BST). The Devon side have also lost their opening two games, but they have a stability in terms of working together under director of rugby Rob Baxter that Newcastle simply cannot match.
“We’re going to Exeter, finalists last year but they’re going to be stinging because they haven’t won a game yet and they’re a good team,” said McFarland.
“It’s a tough ask but we’re not sticking a limit on ourselves, saying these things are not possible. We’re not doing that, we’ll go there full of intent.”
McFarland has described his side as Newcastle 2.0 after the acquisition of 25 players for this season, with not all of the new arrivals featuring yet.
And while there have been lots of good steps forward, the challenge of learning to win needs to be overcome.
“It’s directly linked to growth,” added McFarland. “If you’re not winning, you’ve got to get better. And that is a process that you’re working on day after day.
“It doesn’t happen on one day. There might be a tipping point where it starts to happen but that’s because you’ve put a whole load of steps together before that.”
