The Netherlands won their first major women's international tournament after a thrilling victory over Denmark in the Euro 2017 final on home soil.

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Denmark led through Nadia Nadim's early penalty but the Dutch soon levelled as Arsenal's Vivianne Miedema tucked in.
Lieke Martens put the hosts ahead with a precise 20-yard finish, but Denmark's Pernille Harder slotted in to equalise.
Dutch captain Sherida Spitse blasted in a free-kick to make it 3-2, and Miedema sealed a historic triumph late on.
Surprise finalists Denmark had pushed for another equaliser late on, as Sanne Troelsgaard went close with a swerving half-volley which dipped past the right-hand post.
But the Dutch, backed by the majority of a sold-out 28,182 crowd in Enschede, never looked in serious danger of conceding again and put the game beyond the Danes when Miedema scored the fourth.
It sparked a party atmosphere inside the FC Twente Stadion where virtually every home supporter was wearing the national team colour of orange.
An emotional Miedema appeared to be in tears in the final few seconds of the match, before the stadium erupted when the final whistle was blown.
The Netherlands had never reached the final of a major tournament, with their previous best performance coming when they reached the semi-finals of the 2009 European Championships.
They were not among the pre-tournament favourites, but once France and holders Germany - who were going for a sixth successive title - had been eliminated, they built on the momentum created with the support of their fans.
The Dutch had won all of their games at the tournament leading up to the final, conceding just once in five matches, and beating England in the last four.
Watched by Dutch football legends Marco van Basten and Louis van Gaal in the stands, the home side produced a professional display to fight back against a Denmark team they had already beaten 1-0 in the group stage.
After going behind, the Netherlands started to find their rhythm midway through the first half and eventually showed their superiority.
The Netherlands are only the fourth different nation to win the women's European Championships, after Germany's 22-year reign ended.
Joint-captains Spitse and Reading's Mandy van den Berg, who came on as a substitute in the closing stages, lifted the trophy amid joyous celebrations for the host nation.
It was not the only prize won by the Dutch, with Barcelona winger Martens being presented with the official Player of the Tournament award after a series of dazzling displays on the left flank.
However, the Golden Boot was won by England's Jodie Taylor.
Arsenal's Taylor finished as the tournament's top scorer with five goals, although Arsenal striker Miedema could have levelled by scoring a hat-trick against the Danes.
Rachel Brown-Finnis, ex-England goalkeeper:
This is the perfect ending, having the hosts win it, after they created so much momentum with their fans watching them.
They've been absolutely stunning. The way that they play the game is with so much energy, so much enthusiasm and so much interaction with the crowd.
The speed and the power, and the way they flood players forward, with the quality of the likes of Jackie Groenen, Miedema, Danielle Van de Donk, Martens - the list goes on.
They have been a pleasure to watch and they are deserved champions.
Denmark captain Harder worked tirelessly and was a constant threat but, with two clinically-finished goals, imaginative movement and some world-class hold-up play, new Arsenal signing Miedema was the deserved Player of the Match, scoring for the third game in a row.
The former Bayern Munich star would have had a hat-trick to savour, but for Danish keeper Stina Lykke Petersen's magnificent reflex save to keep out her far-post volley in the second half.
"It was an open match," Netherlands coach Sarina Wiegman said. "There were two teams who really wanted to play football.
"A match with six goals, that's very important for women's football as well."
Striker Miedema added: "We've played six amazing games and today we showed that even if we get behind in a game we can still change the game.
"The moment we scored for 3-2, I just thought 'it's not going to go wrong again'.
"We played so much better in the second half and we deserved to win the tournament."
Denmark boss Nils Nielsen said: "The Dutch team was the best team in the tournament.
"It's not easy to play at home. It's so easy to disappoint everybody, but they didn't, they performed so well.
"I am very, very proud of my own team. We have had so many problems and they kept fighting right until the end."
Match ends, Netherlands Women 4, Denmark Women 2.
Second Half ends, Netherlands Women 4, Denmark Women 2.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Theresa Nielsen (Denmark Women) because of an injury.
Substitution, Netherlands Women. Mandy van den Berg replaces Kika van Es.
Attempt missed. Nadia Nadim (Denmark Women) header from the centre of the box misses to the left. Assisted by Sanne Troelsgaard with a cross following a corner.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Kika van Es (Netherlands Women) because of an injury.
Corner,  Denmark Women. Conceded by Dominique Janssen.
Substitution, Netherlands Women. Renate Jansen replaces Shanice van de Sanden.
Goal!  Netherlands Women 4, Denmark Women 2. Vivianne Miedema (Netherlands Women) right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner. Assisted by Sherida Spitse.
Katrine Veje (Denmark Women) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Jackie Groenen (Netherlands Women).
Attempt missed. Sanne Troelsgaard (Denmark Women) right footed shot from outside the box is close, but misses to the right following a corner.
Corner,  Denmark Women. Conceded by Sherida Spitse.
Attempt blocked. Sanne Troelsgaard (Denmark Women) left footed shot from outside the box is blocked. Assisted by Pernille Harder.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Substitution, Denmark Women. Nanna Christiansen replaces Sofie Pedersen.
Delay in match Stefanie van der Gragt (Netherlands Women) because of an injury.
Offside, Denmark Women. Katrine Veje tries a through ball, but Sanne Troelsgaard is caught offside.
Pernille Harder (Denmark Women) wins a free kick in the attacking half.
Foul by Stefanie van der Gragt (Netherlands Women).
Substitution, Denmark Women. Line Røddik Hansen replaces Simone Sørensen because of an injury.
Delay over. They are ready to continue.
Delay in match Simone Sørensen (Denmark Women) because of an injury.
Sanne Troelsgaard (Denmark Women) wins a free kick in the defensive half.
Foul by Vivianne Miedema (Netherlands Women).
Attempt saved. Sofie Pedersen (Denmark Women) header from the centre of the box is saved in the bottom right corner. Assisted by Cecilie Sandvej with a cross.
Stefanie van der Gragt (Netherlands Women) is shown the yellow card for a bad foul.
Pernille Harder (Denmark Women) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Foul by Stefanie van der Gragt (Netherlands Women).
Foul by Sanne Troelsgaard (Denmark Women).
Daniëlle van de Donk (Netherlands Women) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt missed. Jackie Groenen (Netherlands Women) right footed shot from outside the box misses to the right. Assisted by Daniëlle van de Donk.
Attempt missed. Frederikke Thøgersen (Denmark Women) left footed shot from the centre of the box misses to the left following a corner.
Corner,  Denmark Women. Conceded by Dominique Janssen.
Attempt missed. Katrine Veje (Denmark Women) left footed shot from the centre of the box is close, but misses to the left. Assisted by Pernille Harder.
Foul by Dominique Janssen (Netherlands Women).
Katrine Veje (Denmark Women) wins a free kick on the left wing.
Attempt saved. Vivianne Miedema (Netherlands Women) right footed shot from the right side of the six yard box is saved in the bottom right corner.


India's Twitter users are posting "salute selfies" to pay their respect to armed forces on the eve of the country's 68th Independence Day.

The hashtag has been growing in popularity, prompting Bollywood celebrities like Shah Rukh Khan and sports personalities like Sania Mirza and cricketer Mahendra Singh Dhoni to also participate.
The hashtag originated in Britain to celebrate their Armed Forces Day on 25 June but has now been appropriated in India to do the same.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will address the nation from the iconic Red Fort in Delhi on Saturday morning.
But celebrations appear to have started early on Twitter with thousands rushing to post their #saluteselfies on Twitter.
BBC Monitoring reports and analyses news from TV, radio, web and print media around the world. You can follow BBC Monitoring on Twitter and Facebook.


Ted Hankey could be the first of many players to make the switch from BDO to PDC according to darts supremo Barry Hearn.

The 43-year-old made the decision following his semi-final defeat at Lakeside to Christian Kist.
"I'll miss this place but it's time to move on," he said.
BDO world number three Dean Winstanley also heads 160 entries for the 2012 PDC Pro Tour qualifying school.
The second qualifying school will be held from 19 January to 22 January, offering any darts player the chance to win a tour card to compete on the PDC's £5m circuit.
Other entries include former World Masters winner Tony West and his brother Steve, who both competed alongside Winstanley in the Lakeside Championship last week.
PDC tour cards will be awarded to the four semi-finalists from each one-day tournament staged from 19-22 January.
Ranking points will also be allocated for finishing positions in each event, this then forms a ranking list from which further players will receive a tour card.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 live earlier Hearn said: "Darts is an exploding sport, there's huge amounts of opportunity, huge amounts of money and there's no surprise these players are making the move."
Fifteen-time world champion Phil Taylor recently urged Hankey to join him on the PDC circuit, saying: "Ted should show some bottle, come over and have a go. We're both Stokies and I want him to come over."
The PDC was first formed in 1992 with just 16 players, there are now over 400.
Hankey is the latest big name player to make the switch, the last one being Dutchman Raymond van Barneveld in 2006, after 15 years on the tour.
The Stoke born player made his debut in the BDO World Championships in 1998, reaching the quarter finals.
His first title came two years later beating Ronnie Baxter 6-0 in the final.
He reached the final again 12 months later, losing to John Walton before winning a second title in 2009 beating Tony O'Shea 7-6.
Hearn predicts that "The Count" will be a big hit.
"He's a big character and he's going to be a big success in the PDC circuit," he said.
"He's got something about him.
"That's the thing about sport these days is that the characters who play the game make it more exciting for the punters to go and watch and of course if they play at the highest level then they're a valuable addition."


Christophe de Margerie, the chief executive of French oil company Total, has died in an air crash in Moscow.

His corporate jet collided with a snow plough and was then engulfed in flames. All four people on board were killed.
The driver of the snow plough was drunk, according to Russian investigators.
Mr de Margerie, 63, had been chief executive of Europe's third largest oil company since 2007. He was highly regarded within the oil industry.
A statement from the office of French President Francois Hollande said: "Christophe de Margerie dedicated his life to French industry and to building up the Total group. He made it into one of the very top global companies
"Francois Hollande cherished Christophe de Margerie's independent character, original personality and his devotion to his country."
Russian President Vladimir Putin sent his condolences.
News agency Tass quoted a Kremlin spokesman as saying: "The President highly appreciated de Mergerie's business skills, his continued commitment to the development of not only bilateral Russian-French relations, but also on multi-faceted levels."
Analysis: Andrew Walker, Economics correspondent, BBC World Service
Christophe de Margerie leaves a large gap to be filled.  He was a hugely influential figure in the global energy industry and a colourful and instantly recognisable character.
For colleagues as well as family, there's no question that it's a huge loss. But already the markets appear to think the company will cope. The board is seen as strong and a wobble in the share price seems to have been no more than that.
It is significant that Mr de Margerie was in Moscow. He took the view that the energy industry needed to go to difficult places.  Russia is a prime example. A Total project there - a joint venture with Russia's Lukoil to explore for shale oil - has come to a halt due to Western sanctions.
Mr de Margerie joined Total Group after graduating from the Ecole Superieure de Commerce in Paris in 1974.
At the company, where he had spent his entire career, he was nicknamed "Big Moustache".
John Hofmeister, former president of Shell Oil, told the BBC: "It's a huge loss to the industry and its future focus.
"What he has done for Total in repositioning the company to return to integrity and sound operations is deeply respected and highly regarded."
According to Russia's Vedomosti newspaper, Mr de Margerie had met Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev at his country residence outside Moscow to discuss foreign investment in Russia.
Total is an important player in the Russian energy market and Mr de Margerie was a staunch defender of maintaining ties, despite Western sanctions against Moscow over its actions in Ukraine.
Total is one of the biggest foreign investors in Russia and is planning to double its output from the country by 2020.
It is working on the Yamal project, a $27bn joint venture to extract natural gas in north-west Siberia.
During his time at the helm of Total Mr de Margerie successfully defended the company against allegations of corruption around the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq.
He maintained the company's investments in Burma and Iran despite US sanctions against those countries.
Shares in Total were down sharply at the open, but have since recovered.
Mr de Margerie's jet had been due to fly to Paris from Moscow's Vnukovo International Airport.
Vnukovo, is located to the southwest of Moscow and is used by President Vladimir Putin and other government officials.
Russia's emergencies ministry said in a statement the accident had involved a Falcon-50 plane shortly before midnight local time (20:00 GMT) on Monday.
"Among the chief versions for what happened, investigators are looking at a mistake by the air traffic controllers and the actions of the driver of the snow plough. Apart from that, they will also check the versions of poor weather conditions and mistake by the crew," said Russia's Investigative Committee, a federal agency that answers to President Putin.
"At the current time, it has already been established that the driver of the snow plough was drunk."
Pictures from the scene show the driver looking shocked, but walking unaided and without any obvious serious injury.
Reports say the visibility at the airport was 350m (1,150ft).
Total did not have a succession plan in place for Mr de Margerie, but in July he said that a replacement would come from inside the company.
The company plans to hold a board meeting as soon as possible.
Philippe Boisseau, in charge of Total's new energy division, which is developing renewable energy sources, has been mentioned as one possible successor.
Patrick Pouyanne, president of Total's refining and chemicals division, has also been named as a possible new boss.


Italy's constitutional court has ruled against legislation that automatically gives children of married couples the father's surname.

Lawyers argued that preventing families from giving children their mother's surname discriminated against women.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) had earlier condemned the legislation - which dates from Roman times - and ordered Italy to change it.
Campaigners hailed Tuesday's ruling and called for parliament to endorse it.
"The court has declared the unlawfulness of rules providing for the automatic attribution of the paternal surname to legitimate children, when the parents wish otherwise," the constitutional court said in a statement.
The case involved an Italian-Brazilian couple who wanted to give their son both their surnames, as is traditional in many Spanish-speaking countries.
After their request was rejected by Italian authorities, they took the case to the ECHR, which ruled in their favour in 2014.
It said the law was incompatible with the principle of gender equality enshrined in Italy's modern constitution.
Italy's lower house has approved a bill aimed at changing the law, but it has been blocked in the Senate for years.
"The Constitutional Court has taken a decision of great importance for our society," campaigner and left-wing MP Fabrizia Giuliani is quoted as saying by AFP news agency.
"The senate no longer has any excuse for not abolishing this anachronism and giving women their right in this matter."


US President Donald Trump has hailed the federal government's latest positive job figures, which he once denounced as "phony" and a "joke".

The US economy added 235,000 new jobs in February, Mr Trump's first full month in office.
He retweeted a news report with the caption: "GREAT AGAIN".
During a campaign speech last August, Mr Trump called the Department of Labor numbers one of the "biggest hoaxes in American modern politics".
Challenged about this contradiction at Friday's daily news briefing, White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer said Mr Trump believes, "they may have been phony in the past but it's very real now."
The latest figures brought down the US unemployment rate from 4.8% to 4.7%, the report found.
Much of the growth is being attributed by analysts to an unusually clement few weeks, allowing construction projects and hiring to continue uninterrupted.
Last month was the warmest February on record.
Two years ago in a press conference, Mr Trump attacked the official unemployment rate, calling it "such a phony number" and "the biggest joke".
He asserted that some "great economists" estimate the real US jobless rate is as high as 32% or 42%.
PolitiFact, a fact-checking website, rated this claim as "pants on fire" false.
Mr Trump's US treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, said during his confirmation hearing that "the unemployment rate is not real".


Peru's rich and varied heritage includes the ancient Incan capital of Cuzco and the lost city of Machu Picchu.

The country boasts spectacular scenery, including Lake Titicaca, the world's highest navigable lake. A growing number of visitors are being drawn to its variety of attractions.
The country has been experiencing an economic boom. Foreign investors, attracted by the government and encouraged by favourable conditions, have been keen to get involved in exploiting the country's mineral wealth, sometimes in the face of local resistance.
Peru has become the world's leading producer of cocaine.
The country is still trying to come to terms with the trauma of a two-decade conflict - roughly from 1980 to 2000 - between the state and leftist guerrilla groups, the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement and the Shining Path, which still has a following.
Population 29.7 million
Area 1.28 million sq km (496,225 sq miles)
Major languages Spanish, Quechua, Aymara
Major religion Christianity
Life expectancy 72 years (men), 77 years (women)
Currency nuevo sol
President: Pedro Pablo Kuczynski
Former Prime Minister Pedro Pablo Kuczynski was elected in June 2016, having beaten Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of imprisoned ex-President Alberto Fujimori.
Seen as a conservative, the economist was educated in the UK and USA at the prestigious Oxford and Princeton Universities. He worked extensively for the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund in the 1960s and 1970s, before moving on to run private investment funds.
He served twice as finance minister under President Alejandro Toledo before being promoted to prime minister in August 2005. He is commonly known by his initials PPK, or as "El Gringo", due to his European parentage.
Privately-run broadcasters and newspapers dominate the media scene.
Lima is home to dozens of radio stations and several TV services.
By late 2015 some 16 million Peruvians were online - 53% of the population. There is a stark disparity between urban and rural internet penetration.
Some key dates in Peru's history:
1532-33 - Spanish conquistadores defeat the Incas, whose empire subsequently becomes part of the Vice-royalty of Peru with its capital in Lima.
1780 - Failed Inca revolt against Spanish led by Tupac Amaru II.
1824 - Peru is last colony in South America to gain independence from Spain.
1849-74 - Some 80,000-100,000 Chinese workers arrive in Peru to do menial jobs such as collecting guano.
1866 - Peruvian-Spanish war.
1879-83 - Peru and Bolivia are defeated by Chile during the Pacific War in which Peru loses territory to Chile.
1941 - Brief border war with Ecuador over disputed territory. The two countries clash again in 1981.
1948 - Military government installed following coup.
1963 - Peru returns to civilian rule, but in 1968 military takes over again. Gen Juan Velasco Alvarado introduces populist land reform programme and carries out large-scale nationalisations.
1980 - Return to civilian rule.
1980-2000 - Civil war involving Shining Path, or Sendero Luminoso, guerrillas seeking to overthrow the government. The conflict is estimated to claim 70,000 lives.
2000 - Congress sacks President Alberto Fujimori, who is later jailed for abuse of power and ordering death squad killings.
2011 onwards - Anti-mining protests.


The year 2016 has been another grim year for those campaigning for human rights in China.

On freedom of speech, religious expression, trades unions and a host of other issues, China's one-party state continues to punish those who try to insist on their constitutional rights.
Meanwhile, through propaganda and censorship it works hard to nurture an unquestioning herd mentality and to discourage any exploration of individual values. But even in this unpromising landscape, defiance takes root in unlikely corners.
We were in the private dining room of a showy restaurant and the boss was already slurring his words. A large man with a level gaze, he'd finished one bottle of fine French wine and was moving on to a second.
As he lit a cigarette, two glasses went over like nine pins, one splashing red wine across the table and the other smashing on to the floor.
But he barely seemed to notice and went on telling me how he'd loved London's casinos when he stopped off on the way back from visiting his daughter's British boarding school.
Imagine my surprise, then, when across the dishes stacked with roast duck and dumplings, this local Mr Big suddenly thrust at me a brown file full of well-thumbed papers.
"Fifteen years I've been fighting this miscarriage of justice," he declared. A handbrake turn from talk of boarding schools and casinos.
He told me he'd got embroiled in a factional power battle. One local Communist Party boss wanted him to dish the dirt on a rival.
Nine members of his family had been detained and interrogated and when he wouldn't sign statements incriminating the political target, he himself was jailed on charges of tax evasion.
Even worse, a cousin had died mysteriously in police custody. By the time he'd got to the end of this grimly familiar story of crime and injustice, the second bottle of red wine was empty and we'd long run out of things to toast.
Now I don't usually see it as my job to deliver unpalatable truths to provincial restaurant bosses. The private dining rooms of China have seen more coldblooded politics than I will ever conceive.
But I had eaten his dinner and the least I could do in return was point out that he would not win his battle for justice and instead would waste a lot of money and a lot of political capital in the process of losing.
"I don't care about the money!" he replied. "The innocent must never give up on justice. I'll campaign for this wrong to be righted till the day I die."
Well that brought me up short. I'm not used to private citizens standing on principle in China, especially not rich people. After all, this is a huge, homogenising society under an authoritarian one-party state.
Principles often seem like a dangerous and expensive luxury. Yes, Communist Party leaders make speeches about principles, but for the public that's even more reason to regard such talk as arrant hypocrisy.
I'd even go so far as to say that many Chinese people today are actively intolerant or suspicious of those who stand up for values.
George Bernard Shaw may have written, "the reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man".
But you don't hear people quoting that in China. Instead there are plenty of proverbs telling people to keep their heads down or they'll get them lopped off.
George Bernard Shaw's unreasonable man is plain crazy in this worldview. Not someone heroic and brave, but a loser who will go down and probably take his family and friends with him.
It's not so surprising given that people with convictions are the enemy to a paranoid political class which regards alternative values as an existential challenge.
But at this dining table I was now rethinking my assumptions about the people standing up to the system and shrugging off the crazy tag.
I'd recently met a renegade bishop who was defying both the Vatican and the Chinese Communist Party.
And when I noted that many Roman Catholics were calling him crazy, he observed that people had called Jesus Christ crazy too.
I'd observed brave human rights lawyers standing up for imprisoned colleagues. And young politicians in Hong Kong resisting Beijing's surreal version of democracy.
But the story that made me stop and think was this one among the wine stains and the scallops sprinkled with cigarette ash… a well-fed restaurant boss with so much to lose from upsetting local party bosses determined to join the ranks of George Bernard Shaw's unreasonable men and women.
If people like this join the fight for legal rights - in between their trips to London's casinos - then perhaps progress really is coming.


England cricket legend Sir Ian Botham is looking forward to supporting his grandson James when he makes his rugby debut for Wales.

James Botham - the son of former Cardiff rugby player Liam - is in the Wales Under-18 team to play Scotland in Swansea on Friday.
Sir Ian, 60, does not find it strange that his grandson will be wearing red.
"He was born in Cardiff. He always wanted to play for Wales for as long as I can recall," said the ex-all-rounder.
"I'm really looking forward to it. I think it will be wonderful, a great occasion for James and one that I think he's very excited about, as are the family. I've got a red shirt with me."
Botham, who took 383 wickets and scored 5,200 runs in Tests for England, will watch James make his debut on at St Helen's - where he played county cricket against Glamorgan for Somerset.
James Botham is one of four players making their debuts for Wales, along with Harri Dobbs, Ben Thomas and Dane Blacker.
The match is part of a series which culminates in a game against England Under-18s on 6 April.
Sir Ian said he had not been tempted to persuade James to switch allegiance.
"Never, it's nothing to do with me," he added.
"I'm grandad, and grandad is going to come down and watch him and support him every game. Whether he's playing or on the bench it doesn't matter - all the family that can get down here will be here.
"And when Wales play England my allegiances would be with my grandson."


Newcastle Falcons moved off the bottom of the Premiership table with a fine victory over a below-par Leicester Tigers at Kingston Park.

Simon Hammersley waltzed through the Tigers defence for the opening try before Adam Powell added a second to give Falcons a 20-9 half-time lead.
Laurence Pearce crossed to reduce the deficit but the Falcons' defence held firm to see out the final 15 minutes.
Newcastle have now won five straight games at home in all competitions.
Tigers, who only managed a single penalty in last weekend's 10-3 home defeat by Sale, again looked short of ideas as they failed to break into the opposition's 22 in the first half.
Newcastle on the other hand seemed full of confidence on home turf following back-to-back Premiership wins at Kingston Park and made their pressure count with two superbly crafted tries before the break.
Full-back Hammersley ghosted through a gap following a fine overlap before Powell went over after a drive from the line-out.
It took until after the hour mark for Leicester to finally string together any meaningful phases as substitute back-row Pearce dived over to make it 23-14.
The visitors continued to push forward but had left it too late to complete a comeback as Newcastle earned their third Premiership victory of the season.
Falcons move above London Irish and Worcester into 10th, while Leicester are third but could be overtaken by fourth-placed Harlequins who travel to Gloucester on Saturday.
Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards:
"I told the lads at half-time they just had to go out there and lay their bodies on the line again, and they did.
"The pack were outstanding and Sean Robinson and Will Welch were outstanding in an outstanding pack.
"There is now a sense of belief among the players and this team is in a good place.
"We had a difficult start to the season with lots of injuries - we still have lots of players sidelined but the players now have confidence in each other and that makes it easier to play."
Leicester director of rugby Richard Cockerill:
"We got exactly what we deserved which was nothing.
"We were beaten at every contact point and, clearly, Newcastle wanted it more than us. We were beaten across the board. There's no getting away from it and I'm bitterly disappointed, it's just not acceptable.
"We need to take a good hard look at ourselves and put things right and do it quickly."
Newcastle Falcons: Hammersley; Tait, Harris, Powell, Watson; Goode, Young; Vickers, Lawson, Vea, Wilson, Robinson, Welch (capt), Latu, Hogg.
Replacements: McGuigan, Rogers, Hatakeyama, Botha, Tuilagi, Takulua, Willis, Socino.
Leicester Tigers: Veainu; Betham, Tait (capt), Smith, Camacho; Burns, Harrison; Ayerza, Ghiraldini, Balmain, Fitzgerald, Kitchener, Croft, McCaffrey, Crane.
Replacements: Thacker, Mulipola, Brugnara, De Chaves, Kitto, Bryant, Roberts.
For the latest rugby union news follow @bbcrugbyunion on Twitter.


Tom Cruise's screams in the latest remake of The Mummy have been captured as a ringtone.

Universal Pictures' trailer made for screening in IMAX cinemas omitted one crucial detail - the sound effects.
The clip was uploaded without some of its audio tracks and only included sighs and screams from Cruise and co-star Annabelle Wallis.
The screams went viral and were even turned into a ringtone, spotted by internet news site The Daily Dot.
After IMAX and Universal Pictures realised the mistake, the video was taken down from YouTube, but not before some users had downloaded a copy.
The screams, which should be drowned out by noise from aeroplanes, explosions and gunfire, are heard as misplaced grunts and breaths.
Video editor Chris Person has since removed the music from the trailer and brought the screams back to life in a video he posted to Twitter.
The clip now has its own page on news-sharing community Reddit and it can be downloaded on file-sharing service Dropbox as a five-second ringtone called Tom yell.
It is not often clean audio of a Hollywood movie surfaces, especially directly from the distributors themselves.
One fan has gone as far as replacing the well known Wilhelm scream sound effect with Tom's scream throughout the compilation.
The Mummy is set for release in cinemas worldwide on 9 June, 2017 and the official trailer can be seen here.


A man has been jailed for holding four people hostage during an armed siege.

Alistair Gallow targeted Coral bookmakers in Jarrow, South Tyneside, on 8 January, sparking a stand-off with police lasting several hours.
The 40-year-old of Percy Street, Jarrow, previously admitted four counts of false imprisonment and possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence.
He was jailed for four years at Newcastle Crown Court.
Police were called to the bookmakers in Grange Road at 17:46 GMT. All the hostages - two members of staff and two customers - were released by 20:45.
Gallow also previously admitted three charges of possession of a bladed article in relation to three knives, and one of possession of an offensive weapon, namely a knuckle duster.
The hearing heard that Gallow's marriage had broken down at the time he carried out the raid and his mental health had deteriorated.
He had also told friends and his estranged wife he was "going to do something stupid."
Just before he carried out the raid, he drank two cans of lager and while it was ongoing he continued to drink and told hostages he would let them go "once he got bored".
During a three-hour stand-off he released the hostages - the youngest being 19 years old - one-by-one, the hearing heard.
A psychiatric report found he was suffering from alcohol problems and a personality disorder.


Reported sightings of leatherback turtles are increasing off Wales, with the reptiles thought to be drawn by high numbers of jellyfish.

Three sightings have been reported in recent days, in Laugharne, Carmarthenshire, north Pembrokeshire and Anglesey.
Dr Peter Richardson, of the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), said Wales' waters were currently "turtle heaven".
The turtles nest in the Caribbean before travelling to UK waters to feed.
Dr Richardson said there had been high numbers of jellyfish - the food source of the leatherback - reported in the Irish Sea this year.
He added: "The waters around Wales are absolutely perfect at the moment for turtles - turtle heaven."
"What we have seen in the last few weeks is a sudden increase in the number of leatherbacks reported off the coast of the UK, mostly the south west, but in the last few days we have had three reports of leatherbacks off Wales."
Describing the leatherback as a "spectacular animal," he added: "Wales boasts the largest leatherback ever recorded anywhere on the planet.
"In 1988, a dead one washed up at Harlech... and it measured just under 3m (10ft), nose to tail, and weighed just under a tonne."
In 2002 and 2005 there were about 70 sightings of leatherback turtles around the British coast, but since 2007 there have been 20 or fewer reported annually, according to the MCS.


Donald Trump's policies "could spell the beginning of the end" of Nato, a senior former field commander for the alliance has told Newsnight.

General Sir Richard Shirreff, Nato's deputy supreme commander from 2011-2014, says the US President-elect should re-dedicate himself to the common defence of the western allies soon after his inauguration in January.
The general says Mr Trump must send the "strongest possible signal …that America will, no ifs, no buts, no prevarication, come to the aid of a Nato member if attacked".
If that doesn't happen, Gen Shirreff warns, it "will strike right at the heart of Nato's founding principle of collective defence".
Alexander Vershbow, an American career diplomat who was Nato's Deputy Secretary-General from 2012-2016, says the election of the new president sends a clear signal to European members of the pact who have been under-investing in their defence.
"This was a change election in the United States," Mr Vershbow told the BBC, "so there will be change and I think allies have to be prepared to adapt."
During the campaign Mr Trump said of unspecified Nato allies: "They're not paying their way". He suggested that, if one of them was attacked, the US would be entitled to ask "have they paid?" before deciding to go to their assistance.
The use of this language has caused alarm in many Nato capitals.
There is also concern about suggestions that Mr Trump, as part of a rapprochement with Russia, might be prepared to concede a "zone of influence" to the Kremlin in former Soviet republics, or to reduce pressure over the issue of Ukraine.
"Ratifying the results of Russian aggression in Ukraine would buy you some short term stability," said Mr Vershbow, when asked about the possibility that Mr Trump might accept the Kremlin calling the shots in eastern Europe in return for better relations.
"But I think it would create a much more unstable situation in Europe, encourage the Russians to continue to press forward for some kind of Yalta 2 with a new division of Europe into spheres of influence, which I think would bring back some of the instability we saw in previous decades."
Prior to his Nato role, Mr Vershbow was US ambassador to Moscow from 2001-2005.
Acquiescing to further Russian operations in Ukraine (which is not a Nato member) might send a signal that the president-elect effectively recognises Russia's right to dominate certain neighbouring states, many Nato decision-makers feel.
They fear also a possible knock-on effect in former Soviet republics that are now part of Nato (and indeed the European Union), the Baltic republics of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
"There must be absolutely no doubt about the imperative of defending and protecting Nato territory. There must be no discussion or deals about zones of influence, new Yaltas," says Gen Shirreff, "because that strikes right at the heart of what Nato is about".


Peru's ex-President Alejandro Toledo has denied corruption allegations against him as "a political lynching".

Mr Toledo, who governed from 2001 to 2006, is accused of receiving millions of dollars in bribes from Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht in return for awarding public works contracts.
The company is at the centre of a multi-national corruption scandal.
It has admitted paying $29m (Â£23m) in bribes to secure contracts in Peru between 2005 and 2014.
That time spans the presidencies of Mr Toledo and his two successors in office, Alan Garcia and Ollanta Humala. His successors have also denied any wrongdoing.
Peruvian media reported that Odebrecht's former executive director in Peru, Jorge Barata, accused Mr Toledo of receiving $20m in bribes in exchange for granting the firm a contract to build stretches of a highway linking Peru and Brazil.
Mr Barata is co-operating with prosecutors in his native Brazil and Peru as part of a plea bargain.
Mr Toledo strongly rejected the allegations saying: "Let Mr Barata say when, how, where and in which bank left those $20m for me. I won't stand for this!"
Investigators searched Mr Toledo's home for five hours on Saturday. The attorney general's office said documents found at the home would now be evaluated.
Mr Toledo was in France at the time of the search and said he was "outraged by this political lynching coming from my traditional enemies".
The current president of Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, urged Mr Toledo to return to Peru to face questioning.
"Very hurt by this news about ex-president Toledo. It's a betrayal of the Peruvian people, and it's a betrayal of his colleagues that worked so hard," he said.
President Kuczynski served as prime minister and finance minister under Mr Toledo but denied knowing anything of the alleged corruption.
"These were things that were negotiated outside of Peru, in Rio de Janeiro, and I certainly wasn't there, if I'd known of these meetings I would have resigned immediately," he said.
President Kuczynski's remarks in turn prompted an angry outburst from Mr Toledo's wife, Eliane Karp, on Facebook.
"Shame on you PPK [Pedro Pablo Kuczynski], you have done so many deals and lobbied so much!" she wrote.


The topic of "vocational education" often has a recurrent theme.

Everyone says it's a good thing and it's vital for the economy. But - and there is always a but, it's still the academic pathway that has the higher status.
As the saying goes, vocational education is a great thingâ€¦ for other people's children.
Another side of this conundrum is that there is more need for vocational education than ever before.
Youth unemployment, particularly among those without training or qualifications, is a scourge in many countries. But at the same time employers are warning about skills shortages and not being able to find the right staff.
And a major report commissioned by the City and Guilds group, which provides vocational qualifications, shows how this "mismatch" is an international problem.
"Globally, the stigma of vocational education often reduces it to a second choice to academia," concludes the study, carried out by the Centre for Business and Economics Research.
The expansion in university numbers - in developed and developing countries - has been a global phenomenon.
India is forecast to become the world's biggest producer of graduates - even overtaking China.
More stories from the BBC's Knowledge economy series looking at education from a global perspective and how to get in touch
But the report highlights that the real challenge for India's economic ambitions is the shortfall in vocational skills.
India's rising population will see its labour force growing by 32% in the next two decades - with tens of millions more young people needing to find jobs.
But at present only 2.3% of the workforce have had formal skills training, compared with 80% in Germany.
The report argues that India will not be able to sustain its economic growth without better incentives for vocational education.
As employment switches from agriculture to sectors such as construction and the motor industry, there will be a need for millions more trained workers.
The report highlights some of the attitudes that might stand in the way, such as the "mindset" of Indian parents who focus on getting their children into university and who associate vocational skills with lower status jobs.
In the United States, last month saw the first National Apprenticeship Week, aimed at raising the profile of vocational training.
But the report shows that it's an uphill battle. There are currently 410,000 apprentices in the US - less than half the number in the UK.
Despite research showing a shortage of five million staff with technical skills, the study says that there is still a strong bias in the US system towards academic subjects.
Policymakers, teachers and careers advisers are accused of seeing "success" only in terms of getting more young people into university, despite concerns about the level of student debt.
Implementing change in the US vocational education system is even harder when it's such a fragmented system. The accreditation of trades can be at state, regional or city level, with qualifications not necessarily recognised in other parts of the country.
The research calls for a "robust, high-quality alternative to the traditional college path".
In South Africa, qualifications, whether academic or vocational, are seen as a major advantage in the labour market.
This is a country with a 54% youth unemployment rate - and at the same time a survey of the country's business leaders found high levels of concern about a lack of skilled workers.
As well as the individual and economic waste, such a high level of youth unemployment is seen as threatening "social disruption".
There are ambitions in South Africa to expand both university and vocational training. There is a plan to have 2.5 million places in vocational colleges in the next 20 years, a fourfold increase.
If this can be delivered there will be a strong return on the investment, says the study.
But there is a warning of the risk of a mismatch between what people are studying and the needs of employers.
For instance, it says there is a surplus of trainees in sales, communications and auditing, when the real shortage is for electricians and other technical skills.
In the UK, the study says there has been progress in improving the recognition of vocational education and getting rid of some qualifications with little value to employers.
There is a target for three million apprentices and the report argues that investing in vocational skills will yield a substantial long-term benefit to the UK economy, cutting unemployment and boosting productivity.
But it also warns of a training system that remains over-complex, compared with the path from school to university.
And for the upper secondary age group, few young people in the UK are learning vocational subjects by international standards.
The report also highlights the residual barriers, quoting people who say there is a "negative perception" that vocational courses are for those who could not succeed in academic subjects.
Or more brutally "people think we're really thick because we're doing beauty therapy".
Austria is at the top of the league in Europe for young people enrolled in vocational training.
And the study suggests this could be a key to cutting youth unemployment.
Countries such as Austria and Germany, with relatively high levels of engagement in vocational learning, have among the lowest rates of unemployment in the under-25s.
The research argues that similar levels of vocational training in the UK would lead to a reduction in youth unemployment.
Chris Jones, chief executive, City and Guilds Group, said the report shows the need to stop "outdated prejudices".
"Across the world, governments and businesses are waking up to the importance of work-relevant, vocational education. Yet there is this persistent stigma against vocational education.
"Yet, to be competitive in the future, governments need to think about their education strategies in the context of the bigger picture.
"They need to think about where their economies are heading, and who they'll need to help them get there and critically how to match their future needs with their current supply of labour."


William Shakespeare was the first great "writer entrepreneur" and his financial success gave him artistic independence, an Oxford University researcher claims.

Dr Bart van Es says the turning point for Shakespeare's writing career was when he became a shareholder in a theatre company.
It meant that he had much more control over his plays than other writers.
"This separated Shakespeare from the world of the jobbing playwright," says Dr van Es.
In 1594, Shakespeare bought a share in the Lord Chamberlain's Men theatre company, which Dr van Es describes as a "daring decision".
It was an unprecedented step for an Elizabethan author to take a stake in the ownership of of a theatre company and it put Shakespeare in a "unique position", compared with his literary contemporaries, claims Dr van Es, from Oxford's faculty of language and literature.
It made Shakespeare much richer, but it also gave him much more freedom over his writing and allowed him to innovate.
Until this point, says Dr van Es, Shakespeare had been on the path of a "conventional playwright", supplementing writing with some acting, depending on the patronage of the wealthy and having to accept that his work could be re-written and adapted by other people.
Dr van Es says Shakespeare would probably have borrowed the money to buy his eighth share in the theatre company, but his financial timing was as successful as his dramatic timing.
The Elizabethan theatre proved to be extremely lucrative and Shakespeare was able to take a share of the profits. In such a moment "fortunes are made," says Dr van Es, a fellow of St Catherine's College.
Instead of acting out a caricature of a starving author, Shakespeare was now able to buy property and lend other people money.
This also changed the trajectory of his writing, says Dr van Es, whose research has been published in a book, Shakespeare in Company.
He had the financial security to develop his own literary voice and themes and no longer had the "breadline existence" of having to compromise to meet the whims of rich sponsors.
This close relationship with one theatre company allowed him to develop characters for particular favourite actors, giving him much more artistic control over how the plays might be performed.
"Shakespeare is known as the first playwright with deep, distinctive characterisation and I believe he developed this because of his relationships with the company's principal actors," says Dr van Es.
He also says that surviving play manuscripts from the Elizabethan era show how much scripts were likely to be changed.
He likens it to the way a Hollywood film might be very different from the original script - and that Shakespeare was unusual in getting control of the production process.
His financial stake in the theatre also meant that as well as impressing a fashionable aristocratic audience he also had to make sure that the plays had a popular appeal to keep the crowds coming back.
"He was writing for a mass audience, but also for the court," says Dr van Es. The outcome he says is the "high-low hybrid" that characterises his plays.
This new way of looking at the playwright's career - from treading the boards to the board room - also shows how different Shakespeare was from his contemporaries, says Dr van Es.
"There is no one else like Shakespeare in his income and control," he says.


A relic for music geeks and collectors only?

A by-product of a musical age that's long been forgotten?
For years, vinyl records have been seen by many as a thing of the past, but are they?
New figures out today are another indicator that the tide could be turning for the once "near extinct" format.
Earlier in the year we told you that 18 to 24-year-olds are buying more vinyl records than any other age group under 50.
Today there's more good news for fans of the LP.
Data collected by The Official Chart Company shows that 800,000 records have been sold so far this year.
That's already more than were bought during all of last year (780,674).
The figures suggest that vinyl sales are on track to top one million this year.  The last time that happened was all the way back in 1996.
That year the Fugees' LP The Score was the top-selling record. In 2014 it seems it's the Arctic Monkeys' album AM that has helped drive sales.
The Indy rockers' fifth studio album is the biggest-selling of the year on vinyl, following up its success as 2013's best-seller.
But it's not just down to one band. Jack White, Oasis, Led Zeppelin and newcomers Royal Blood make up the top five best-selling vinyl artists of 2014.
In total 112 LPs have sold more than 1,000 copies - more than double the number of titles compared with this time last year.
The figures released today by the Official Charts Company show just how far the format has come in the past few years.
Back in 2007 when vinyl was at its lowest ebb only 205,292 records were sold.
Lynne McDowell from the British Recorded Music Industry (BPI) said: "Vinyl may once have been considered a by-product of a bygone era but it is now well and truly a flourishing format making a comeback in a digital age.
"It appears that music fans still crave a tangible product that gives them original artwork, high audio quality, and purity of sound".
So don't be surprised if your mates start turning up to parties with a stack of LPs as well as their MP3 player.
Follow @BBCNewsbeat on Twitter and Radio1Newsbeat on YouTube


The BBC has spent 29% less on stars earning more than £100,000 a year over the past five years, an independent review has revealed.

Overall spending on talent - those with an on-air or on-screen presence - was down 15%, from £221m to £188m.
The review said the BBC had made "vast improvements" in managing talent pay.
But it also made some recommendations, including improving monitoring of diversity of talent and improving use of data on the deals it makes.
The Oliver & Ohlbaum review concluded the BBC's savings were down to a more relaxed approach to exclusivity, learning to let top stars leave and paying less.
Presenters were also producing more output on different programmes for the same level of pay.
The review pointed out while household names such as Jake Humphrey, Susanna Reid and Chris Moyles had left the corporation, the BBC had still "maintained the quality of output for licence fee payers".
The BBC has received criticism in the past over the amount it pays its on-air talent.
Jonathan Ross, whose former BBC salary was reported to be in the region of £6m, has also left since the Trust's last review was published in 2008.
The review also said the reduction in spend came against a backdrop of increasing competition in the talent market, which has led to top talent costs increasing across the industry.
On Wednesday, BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead highlighted the review in a speech to the Oxford Media Convention.
"Today's report shows that the BBC has made great strides in reducing talent costs, and it's clear this has been achieved without affecting quality," she said.
"The report also points to increasing competitive and inflationary pressures in the market. To counter that pressure, the BBC needs to build on its progress - so that it does more to develop new talent, can demonstrate optimum value in its deals and knows when to walk away."
However, the report said the BBC needs to pay more attention to "what it gets for the money it pays" and should "apply more pressure to ensure that the BBC gets the best possible deal".
It also warned the BBC needs to develop a more structured approach to talent development or face an exodus, revealing that 45% of ITV's current stars made their first appearance on the BBC.
Oliver & Ohlbaum said the organisation should do more to look after its lower-paid actors and presenters, who are "feeling the squeeze" because their pay has stayed largely static for the last five years.
The last major review into talent pay at the BBC in 2008 again suggested there was some room for improvement in the BBC's practices.
In 2009, a brief follow-up review found good progress had been made.
Last year the BBC executive introduced a cap on talent spend, which can now only account for up to 16% of the corporation's in-house programming budget.
According to last year's BBC annual report, 250 performers and presenters earned more than £100,000, including 14 with salaries between £500,000 and £5m.
The chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, John Whittingdale MP, was not available for comment at the time of writing.


Five Indian students facing charges of sedition after organising a protest at Delhi's prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), have resurfaced.

The protest on 9 February was over the 2013 hanging of Kashmiri man Mohammed Afzal Guru and allegedly saw the chanting of anti-India slogans.
Police arrested JNU student union head Kanhaiya Kumar on sedition charges but also named five other organisers.
The arrest led to protests and clashes in Delhi and universities across India.
Government ministers have refused to back down and vowed to punish what they describe as "anti-national elements", but critics condemned the charges as an assault on freedom of expression.
The five students - named as Umar Khalid, Anirban Bhattacharya, Ashutosh Kumar, Anant Prakash Narayan, Riyazul Haq and Rama Naga - went missing after they were named by police.
They returned to campus late on Sunday night and addressed other students holding a vigil, reports said.
A section of the media had accused Umar Khalid of having links with the Pakistan-based Islamist militant group Jaish-e-Mohammad, although the government later denied the reports.
"...I'm not a terrorist. I have never projected myself as a Muslim while doing politics on campus. I always tried to see exploitation of Muslims along with the exploitation faced by Dalits, tribals and others," Mr Khalid told a gathering.
After news of the students return, police turned up at the JNU campus, Press Trust of India said, but reports say they need permission from university authorities to enter and arrest the students.
At one of Mr Kumar's court appearances, he was set upon by a group of lawyers, an act which further inflamed public opinion.
The protests triggered by the arrest and treatment of Mr Kumar spread far and wide with students from the southern city of Chennai (Madras) and in the eastern city of Kolkata (Calcutta) involved in violent clashes.
Afzal Guru was executed over a 2001 plot to attack India's parliament - charges he always denied. The attack was carried out by Kashmiri militants and left 14 people dead.
His 2013 hanging sparked protests in Kashmir, and he was seen as a martyr and a symbol of perceived injustice. But many of India's politicians were angered when reports surfaced of anti- India slogans chanted at the protest held to mark his execution.
Correspondents say there has been a sharp rise in the number of sedition cases in recent years and many students see the latest moves as an attack on their right to dissent.


Donald Trump has hit out at Mexico after its president cancelled next week's visit to the White House.

The US president said meeting Enrique Pena Nieto would be "fruitless" if Mexico didn't treat the US "with respect" and pay for a new border wall.
The diplomatic spat comes a day after Mr Trump unveiled his plan to build a barrier along the Mexico-US border.
Senate Republicans said the US Congress would move ahead with the plan, and it would cost $12bn (Â£9.5bn) to $15bn.
Mr Trump told Republican lawmakers in Philadelphia that the two leaders had mutually agreed to cancel the summit, adding, "the American people will not pay for the wall."
"Unless Mexico is going to treat the United States fairly, with respect, such a meeting would be fruitless, and I want to go a different route. We have no choice."
White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters they were looking "for a date to reschedule", adding they will "continue to keep the lines of communication open".
Mr Pena Nieto announced earlier on Thursday he had called off the 31 January trip after Mr Trump suggested he should do just that.
"If Mexico is unwilling to pay for the badly needed wall, then it would be better to cancel the upcoming meeting," the US president wrote on Twitter on Thursday morning.
In a televised address, Mr Pena Nieto said he "lamented" the plans for the barrier.
The Mexican leader told the nation: "I've said time and again: Mexico won't pay for any wall.
"I regret and condemn the decision of the United States to continue construction of a wall that, for years, has divided us instead of uniting us."
Mr Pena Nieto met Mr Trump - then a presidential candidate - in Mexico City in September and came under intense criticism at home. His approval ratings remain low.
Mr Nieto is facing the lowest approval ratings of any Mexican president over the past two decades. Much of that unpopularity is down to Donald Trump. Many Mexicans consider their leader lacks the necessary steel to deal with the new Republican president and has been railroaded on everything from the border wall to Nafta.
So when President Trump challenged - some might even say goaded - him to cancel their meeting, Mr Pena Nieto was left with little other option.
He would have been perceived as very weak if he had travelled to Washington for talks and for many here, it would have been tantamount to accepting Mr Trump's central claim - that Mexico will pay for the US border wall. If not up front, then eventually.
That is simply unacceptable to most ordinary Mexicans who view the wall as unnecessary, inhumane, expensive and ineffective.
As their elected leader, at least for the next 18 months, Enrique Pena Nieto was duty-bound to deliver that message to the White House.
On Thursday, US media reported the chief of US Border Patrol is leaving his job.
It is unclear if Mark Morgan, who heads the agency charged with securing US borders, was forced out or resigned.
Building a barrier along the 2,000 mile (3,200km) US boundary with Mexico was one of Mr Trump's key election pledges.
Mexicans were also outraged when Mr Trump described their migrants as murderers and rapists, while launching his campaign in 2015.
Trade relations are also fraying after Mr Trump pledged to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement and impose border taxes on US firms that move jobs to Mexico.
As he signed the wall-building directive on Wednesday, Mr Trump warned of a "crisis" on the southern US border.
His executive orders also called for hiring 10,000 immigration officials to help boost border patrol efforts.
In other developments:


The number of people switching current accounts has fallen by more than 10% in the past year, the industry has said.

During 2015, 1.03 million customers moved their bank account to another provider, compared with 1.15 million in 2014.
The drop in numbers comes in spite of a high profile publicity campaign last September.
However, the Current Account Switching Service (CASS) said more people switched in the last quarter of 2015.
CASS was launched in September 2013, to promote more competition between banks, and better deals for customers.
"These figures show customer apathy towards current account switching remains entrenched," said Richard Neudegg, head of regulation at price comparison site Uswitch.
"A quicker, more efficient switch alone is not enough to encourage customers to change banks or to improve competition."
However, CASS said switching rates improved by 11% in the last quarter of 2015, as a result of the media campaign.
And it said more people were aware of the service than previously.
In October, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said that people could save at least Â£70 a year if they changed their current account provider.


Portsmouth midfielder Ben Close has agreed a new one-year contract with the club, with the option of a 12-month extension to the deal.

Close, 20, spent the second half of last season on loan at Eastleigh in the National League.
The Portsmouth academy graduate made four cup appearances for his parent club before nine games for Eastleigh.
"Hopefully this will be the year when I can get a regular run of games in the side," he said.


The year 2015 has been a make-or-break for Pakistan - and no question has been bigger than whether to talk to militants or crush them.

The determining event that led to a dramatic change of policy by both the military and the civilian government was the 16 December 2014 attack on an army public school in Peshawar that left 150 people dead - mostly children and female teachers.
The public and the army demanded retribution and emergency measures were taken after the Pakistani Taliban based in Afghanistan claimed to have carried out the attack.
Here are some of the far-reaching consequences for the country and ways in which it has changed.
An all-parties conference held by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Peshawar swiftly agreed to a 20-point National Action Plan that would combat and eliminate the threat of terrorism.
The army had in June 2014 already launched a military campaign to clear North Waziristan of the Taliban. It has since stepped up its offensive, targeting other areas such as the Khyber and Kurram tribal agencies in the border regions.
The military aspects of this plan have been implemented by the army in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province in particular.
But there has been a chronic lack of will shown by the civilian government over implementing the social and political aspects of the plan - in areas such as madrassa reform, containing the spread of extremism through social media, improving education and, most important of all, building the promised National Counter Terrorism Authority (Nacta) that was established in 2009, but has remained dormant ever since.
The Nacta Act passed by parliament in 2013 would have bought all intelligence agencies onto a common platform but was never implemented.
There is clearly a lack of government capacity in Islamabad to take on all the onerous parts of the plan.
Instead of encouraging and helping civilians to build capacity, the army's response has been to take on more and more tasks itself - which is becoming untenable as it is over-stretched.
Four hanged over Peshawar attack
Peshawar school reopens after attack
'Miraculous' recovery for Peshawar schoolboy
Pakistan school massacre: Who are the dead?
Major militant attacks have been reduced from dozens every month in 2014 to no more than one or two a month this year. Clearly, the army offensive in the tribal regions which resulted in insurgents being killed or escaping to Afghanistan has had a major positive effect.
In Karachi the clean-up of militants, political party-based militias and extortion gangs has also been positive with citizens reporting the first peace in the city for many years.
Sectarian attacks on the minority Shia population were also reduced after the 29 July "encounter" killing by the police in Punjab of Malik Ishaq, the leader of the anti-Shia Lashkar-e-Jhangvi group and his two sons.
Ishaq was on a US list of global "terrorists". However, minorities such as Shias, Ahmedis and non-Muslims like Christians continue to be attacked with impunity.
Nevertheless, the army offensives have so far been selective - aiming at Balochistan where separatist rebels have been attacked and also a political peace offensive launched; KP province and tribal regions where the Pakistani Taliban have been targeted; and Karachi where a variety of ideological groups and mafias have been targeted.
However, apart from the killing of Malik Ishaq, groups in Punjab have been left untouched. These include the largest extremist group in the country, Lashkar-e-Taiba, which has gone through several name changes and now ostensibly carries out charity work.
Up to 70 groups are active in Punjab - many of them directed at India and trying to wrest the Indian part of Kashmir from Delhi's control.
The US and Western nations have expressed growing concern that with the large number of small tactical nuclear weapons now being deployed in Pakistan's nuclear arsenal, the Punjab-based groups which have close links to the military could get their hands on them.
The army has reassured the Americans that all security measures are being taken. It has also loudly hinted that a clean-up in Punjab will take place once other areas are settled.
The European Union and Pakistani human rights groups have been deeply perturbed at the number of executions in Pakistan.
After the Peshawar school attack the seven-year moratorium on executions was lifted and this year more than 300 people have received capital punishment. The vast majority were those not convicted of terrorism.
Pakistan has over 6,000 prisoners awaiting execution - one of the largest number of inmates on death row in the world.
The government's failure to address the long-running failures in an over-crowded legal system has created a dependency on death sentences, often with poor evidence or none at all.
Anti-terrorism military courts were established in 2015, but they remain highly controversial.
A better path would be for the government to improve the legal system and modernise the police. However with some 20-25% of the national budget going on the military, there is little room for more for the police.
Civilian-military tensions remain, but at times are lessened largely due to the government stepping back and accepting demands by the army.
The government has come under criticism for not standing up to the army, but also praised for not seeking a confrontation with it.
However this is a dangerous situation for the future as the army extends its writ not only in counter-insurgency and counter-terrorism, but also in the legal system, monitoring and controlling the media, influencing the appointment of key officials as well as determining the country's foreign and security policy.
So the year 2016 also promises to be a make-or-break year.
The civilian government has to address its incapacity in key areas of governance.
For example some 1.2 million internally displaced persons still have to be rehabilitated in KP province and the tribal regions.
This task should be undertaken by the civilians, but the army has already started the process.
An improvement of the legal and police system and the need to build up Nacta by civilians are all of the utmost importance.
The army needs to help civilians build capacity while becoming more transparent and inclusive in foreign policy and in national security decisions it takes.
The civilian side needs to be more assertive in taking decisions and implementing promises.
Pakistan is still not out of the woods as far as terrorism is concerned and the new year will demonstrate whether the leadership has the will to improve the situation.


For a mobile phone salesman who was so successful he was able to buy himself a Ferrari for his 24th birthday, Jacyn Heavens didn't have the most auspicious of starts.

Three years earlier, in 2004, after previously working in insurance, he had got his first job selling the handsets.
And things did not initially go well for the man from Norwich, in the east of England.
"Before I started I'd talked my way into doubling my basic salary, but the only problem was that I then had to do the job," says Jacyn, now 33.
"It was boom time for mobiles, but it wasn't working for me, I couldn't get one sale. One day the boss said to me, 'Get out of the office, and don't come back until you have a sale.'
"So I drove to an industrial estate, sat in my car and cried. I phoned my mother to say 'I'm useless, I need to jack this in.'"
Thankfully for Jacyn, he decided to tough things out. Instead of quitting he devised a strategy to succeed.
Today the founder and boss of Epos Now, the UK's 13th fastest-growing technology business, Jacyn is still quick to come up with ways to get around the unforeseen problems that all businesses face.
Back in 2004, his dilemma was very simple - he was trying to sell mobile phones to businesses, would spend all day cold calling firms, and they would always say no.
Then Jacyn says it dawned on him that the reason no-one was interested was because their existing contracts weren't due for renewal.
So instead of trying to sell phones in the first instance, he would instead ask companies when their current contracts were due to run out.
He'd write this down, and soon built up a long list of forthcoming renewal dates.
Phoning back at a time when firms were indeed looking to upgrade their handsets, Jacyn says he started to win order after order.
"I was 500th out of 500 members of staff on the sales list, then all of sudden I was 200th, then 50th, then number one," he says.
Working for a company in East Anglia at the time, he was soon headhunted by a rival mobile phone business in London.
Jacyn says his meticulous planning meant that his sales figures continued to boom, and he raked in commission payments.
So much so that by his 24th birthday he was "completely financially secure", and treated himself to a brand new Ferrari.
But two years later he decided to quit the world of sales. "I was little burned out, I decided I'd go back to Norwich and just chill out," he says.
"I'd reached the pinnacle in sales, I'd done everything I could do, so I thought I'd open a bar with a mate."
Opening his bar in Norwich in 2009, Jacyn says he soon discovered that he had a woeful lack of knowledge regarding the finances of running a small business, despite his parents owning their own pub.
"I didn't really understand profit and loss, VAT and payroll. And was I a limited company, or a sole trader? I didn't know.
"But the biggest problem was that while we were making money, we didn't know where it was all going. When we sat down and went through everything, we realised there were a lot of costs we hadn't factored in - suppliers, telecoms, broadband, cleaners etc."
To better get to grips with the bar's cash flows, Jacyn realised that he needed to get an epos (electronic point of sale) system. This is a computerised till system that typically has a touchscreen and software that enables a retailer to easily check all in and outgoings.
After checking the prices of such systems, Jacyn says he found that they typically retailed for about £6,000, which he thought was far too expensive for him and thousands of other small firms.
He immediately recognised that there was a business opportunity to produce a version for less than a quarter of the price.
So, selling the Ferrari and remortgaging his house, Jacyn decided to enter the epos marketplace.
Importing the hardware from China, and paying to download a software system, Epos Now was born in Norwich in 2011.
Retailing for £1,000, sales soon boomed, with the company advertising on Google, paying "5p a click" whenever someone in the UK typed in the word "epos".
However, a year later Jacyn says the business faced a significant problem when its then software provider pulled out.
Epos Now had to quickly find and employ its own software designer, and it was able to stay in business.
"Everything was stacked against us," says Jacyn. "But I was all in by then, everything was in.
"You never know if you are going to be successful [when you start a business], but you just have to make a real run at it and overcome any problems."
Today Jacyn says Epos Now is turning over £17m a year, and it has entered the US and German markets.
The company had planned to open its American office in Silicon Valley, but Jacyn says it was far too overpriced, so instead the business's US operation is based in Orlando, Florida.
Looking ahead, technology journalist and IT consultant Adrian Mars cautions that epos firms such as Epos Now face ever growing competition from cheaper competitors, driven by big falls in the price of the hardware.
However, Jacyn says he is confident that Epos Now - of which he owns 100% of the shares - will achieve an annual turnover of £100m in five years' time.
"Everyone is offering me money for the business, last year I was offered £50m in cash," he says. "But I don't do this for the money, I do it because it is fun. I enjoy the negotiations, the deal making."
Follow The Boss series editor Will Smale on Twitter @WillSmale1


Abby Wambach, the world's all-time leading international goalscorer, was arrested on Saturday night for driving under the influence of alcohol.

American Wambach, 35, retired in December 2015 having scored 184 goals in 255 games, a record unmatched by any man or woman in international history.
"I take full responsibility for my actions. This is all on me," Wambach said in a statement on Facebook.
Wambach helped the United States women's team to 2015 World Cup glory.
According to local police, she was arrested in Portland, Oregon after being seen running a red light.
Wambach failed sobriety tests and was booked into the Multnomah County Jail on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol. She was later released.
In her statement, Wambach promised not to repeat her "horrible mistake" and apologised to her friends, her family, her fans, "and those that look to follow a better example".
She added: "Those that know me, know that I have always demanded excellence from myself. I have let myself and others down."
Wambach was named the 2012 Fifa Women's World Player of the Year and is also a six-time US Soccer Female Athlete of the Year winner.


Saudi Arabia has named a new defence minister after the death of Crown Prince Sultan, who had held the defence position for some 50 years.

Prince Salman bin Abdulaziz, who is 76, will take the defence post, state television al-Ekhbariya announced.
He is currently governor of Riyadh and is the half-brother of King Abdullah.
Interior Minister Prince Nayef bin Abdulaziz had already been named as crown prince and Prince Sutam bin Abdul Aziz will become Riyadh's new governor.
Saudi Arabia is one of the world's biggest arms spenders, and Prince Salman is expected to continue building strong ties with Western allies.
One former diplomat has described him as "intelligent, political, in touch with the conservative base, but also quite modern-minded," Reuters news agency reported.
Another ex-diplomat said Prince Salman had always been "very helpful" in resolving difficulties facing Westerners in the kingdom.


Ten Indian soldiers are missing after an avalanche struck the Siachen glacier in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Army spokesman Colonel SD Goswami said army and air force rescue teams helped by dogs were looking for the troops.
The avalanche hit the high-altitude military post on the northern side of the glacier early on Wednesday morning.
Siachen, known as the world's highest battlefield, is patrolled by troops from both India and Pakistan, who dispute the region's sovereignty.
Four Indian soldiers were killed by an avalanche in the same area last month.
More soldiers have died from harsh weather on the glacier than in combat since India seized control of it in 1984, narrowly pipping Pakistan. Soldiers have been deployed at heights of up to 22,000 ft (6,700m) above sea level.
The neighbours have failed to demilitarise the Siachen glacier despite several rounds of peace talks.


An annual commemoration of the Irish famine when 1 million people died is to be held in Northern Ireland for the first time.

The Irish arts minister has confirmed that the 2015 famine commemoration will take place on Saturday 26 September in Newry, County Down.
In "the great hunger" of 1845, 1.5 million people emigrated to Canada, America and England.
Many died of typhus on the so-called "coffin ships".
Irish minister Heather Humphreys said the famine affected all of the island of Ireland.
As a result, the commemoration rotates between its four provinces.
The first commemoration took place in Dublin in 2008 - in total, there have been eight commemorations - and this year, it falls to Ulster.
"The annual famine commemoration is a solemn tribute to those who suffered in the most appalling circumstances that prevailed during the Great Famine," Ms Humphreys said.
"While the scale of suffering was greater in some parts of Ireland than in others, all parts of the island suffered great loss of life and the destruction of families and communities through emigration.
"In this commemoration, we remember all those who suffered, those who died, those who survived but who lost family members, those who were forced to emigrate and those who remained in Ireland but suffered other forms of loss because of the Great Famine."
In 2011, the commemoration was held in Clones, County Monaghan, in the province of Ulster and Ms Humphreys was present.
"It was very moving to witness the involvement of the entire community in the event and in particular, the participation of children. I look forward to engaging with the local community in Newry, as they bring their unique perspective to remembering one of the most important events in our shared history, and as an Ulster woman, I look forward to participating in the event in Newry in September," she said.
The minister and the famine commemoration committee welcomed Newry's strong application, the enthusiasm shown by the local community for the project and their determination to mark the occasion in a fitting, respectful and inclusive manner.
The newly-established Newry, Mourne and Down District Council will take a leading role in organising the commemoration.
The Department of Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht in the Republic of Ireland and the Department of Culture, Arts and Leisure in Northern Ireland will work with the council and other stakeholders.


Cardiff's Caroline Street has many claims to fame but it doesn't often feature in Hansard.

New Labour MP Jo Stevens managed to name-check a street known to some as "chip alley" during her maiden speech in the House of Commons.
"Alongside the world's oldest record shop, Spillers, which opened in 1894," she said, "and our beautiful Victorian shopping arcades, we have a famous Caroline Street, where early and late-night city-centre revellers enjoy our special Welsh delicacy of chicken curry, arf'n'arf."
Besides the traditional maiden speech guide to her constituency, she highlighted some of her political priorities:  "Throughout the election, I campaigned on the need to tackle inequality head onâ€”wealth inequality, social inequality and tax inequality. I will continue that campaign and be a strong voice for all the people of Cardiff Central."
Ms Stevens has also made her maiden appearance in the Daily Politics studio, where she was questioned about a newspaper interview with Harriet Harman in which the acting Labour leader suggested even some Labour supporters were relieved the party didn't win.
Was Harriet Harman right? Jo Stevens: "I'm afraid I don't recognise what that Independent interview describes. It's the polar opposite to what I experienced on the doorstep as an election candidate in a key seat for Labour over two years.
You can watch Jo Stevens's maiden speech here and read it in Hansard here.
"I think what Harriet is getting at is about persuading floating voters to come over to us and maybe that argument wasn't  persuasive enough - clearly in large swathes of the country where there were Tory-Labour marginals that argument didn't work."
Was Ed Miliband the problem?
"Not as far as I was concerned. I think it was because we didn't rebut the Tory argument from 2010 onwards that we messed up the economy, and if we'd done that if, we'd made an an attempt to do it better than we did, I think that would have made a difference."


The bells of York Minster could remain silent this Christmas after bell-ringers elsewhere reportedly rejected an invitation to ring them.

16 December 2016 Last updated at 12:57 GMT
York Minster dismissed its 30 volunteer bell-ringers in October after a "safeguarding" issue.
The York Press reported that bell-ringers in Leeds opted to stand by their colleagues and refused York's offer.


In his inauguration speech in January, President Donald Trump said: "It's going to be only America first."

It didn't take long for comedians to use this as an opportunity for some political satire and to joke about which country might then be second.
A few weeks ago, the Dutch Zondag Met Lubach late-night show released a satirical promotional-type video mockingly appealing to Mr Trump to choose the Netherlands as second, after "America first".
"We totally understand it's going to be America first - but can we just say, 'The Netherlands second'?" the voice in the video asks.
Following the broadcast of the video, an online group that calls itself Every Second Counts has invited on Twitter satirists from around the world to produce similar videos and satirically prove why their countries are worthy to be chosen second by Mr Trump.
Since Zondag Met Lubach released its video on 23 January, satirists from 18 countries, including 14 from Europe, have produced videos, which have attracted millions of views and gone viral on social media platforms.
The videos start with the sound of a narrator pretending to be the president, saying: "This is a message from the government ofâ€¦"
The videos use rhetoric inspired by the president's speeches and mockingly talk about national pride, praising their country and talking about non-serious matters.
In the Zondag Met Lubach video, the narrator claims that Dutch is by far the best European language, which should put them ahead of the race for second place.
He says: "We speak Dutch. It's the best language in Europeâ€¦ Danish total disaster. German is not even a real language. It's fake."
The videos also refer to more serious political matters.
Mocking Mr Trump's plans to build a wall along the border with Mexico, the Dutch video says: "This is the Afsluitdijk [a manmade causeway]. It's a great, great wall that we built to protect us from all the water from Mexico."
The group's Twitter account, @Itsgreat, created in late January, has more than 65,000 followers.
A hashtag, #everysecondcounts, created with the account, has been used over 30,000 times.
The group has also launched a website with a world map, allowing people to browse by continent and country and watch the videos submitted by the satirists.
German comedian Jan Boehmermann has created a video about his country.
However, a video posted by the Swiss Deville Late-Night show is among the most popular, having attracted nearly 10 million views.
It refers to the country as the "sexiest in Europe".
The video satirically mocks Mr Trump's talk about Mexico and the wall, saying: "Switzerland is very safe since there are no Mexicans there."
Satirists from Iran have also produced a video, talking about the US-Iran relations and Middle East politics.
In the video, there is a suggestion that Iraq and Iran often get muddled because they are spelt similarly.
Pretending to be Mr Trump, the narrator says: "That is what we are really afraid of, that you mix up the names."
At the end of the video, he says: "America First, but can we say Iran before Iraq?"
Among the more recent countries to produce a video is Slovenia, with the phrase: "We even have the word 'love' in the name of our country."
Among the other countries to have produced videos are:
Produced by the UGC and Social News team.


German club Wolfsburg have completed the signing of Nigeria international teenage striker Victor Osimhen from Lagos-based side Ultimate Strikers Academy.

Osimhen, who only turned 18 on 29 December, joins on a three-and-a-half-year deal until June 2020 after rejecting English Premier League side Arsenal.
The teenage forward starred at the under-17 World Cup in October 2015, scoring 10 goals to help Nigeria win a record fifth title.
"I want to thank the coach and the club management for this opportunity and the faith in me," said Osimhen.
"Wolfsburg is the right place to start my career. Now it is up to me to give something back. I have to work hard and learn."
Wolfsburg's manager Valérien Ismaël told the club's website: "At the age of 18 Victor already has a large presence in our attack. He is good going forward and for his size very fast.
"However, he has to improve his physical strength and get used to playing in Germany.  We want to help him take this step."
Osimhen was also part of the Nigeria side that won the Under-23 Africa Cup of Nations in Senegal in November 2015, which also qualified them for the Rio Olympics last year.
He was named the 2015 Confederation of African Football Youth Player of the Year at the award ceremony in Abuja last January.


An Garda Síochána (Irish police) is to publish a report on financial irregularities at its training college.

The force's internal audit section examined financial transactions over a number of years at the college in Templemore, County Tipperary.
Its report revealed that money was being spent on gifts and entertainment, and identified a non-transparent system of accounting.
The Garda has been embroiled in a number of controversies recently.
Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan said that while the accounting practices would not be acceptable by today's standards, there was no misappropriation of money or misuse of public funds.
Tánaiste (deputy prime minister) Frances Fitzgerald told the Dáil (parliament) on Tuesday that the report raises serious governance issues and will be referred to the Comptroller and Auditor General and the Public Accounts Committee.
Meanwhile, Commissioner O'Sullivan is to give evidence to the Oireachtas (parliamentary) Committee on Justice and Equality on Thursday.
She will face questions over revelations on fixed charge notices and breathalyser test figures.
Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin of Sinn Féin, who chairs the Justice and Equality Committee, said members wanted assurances "that there can be no repeat of these outrageous facts".
On Tuesday, the government announced it was planning two investigations into the Garda.
Taoiseach (prime minister) Enda Kenny announced an independent review of the force.
A second investigation will probe the wrongful convictions of almost 15,000 motorists, and apparent false data on breath tests.
Last week, it emerged that almost one million drink-driving tests recorded by police in the Republic of Ireland did not actually take place.
In addition, police have admitted a separate error that caused almost 15,000 wrongful traffic convictions.
Mr Kenny also said on Tuesday that the government continues to have confidence in Commissioner O'Sullivan.
She was already facing questions over her leadership because of allegations of a smear campaign against a whistleblower, Sgt Maurice McCabe.
Sgt McCabe was one of two officers who raised concerns years ago about the alleged deletion of penalty points from the driving licences of well-connected offenders.
Speaking during Leaders' Questions in the Dáil (parliament), Mr Kenny said of the independent review: "We continue to see a list of unacceptable revelations about the operation of An Garda Síochána.
"The government believes that the level of public concern is now so profound that it's now time to conduct a thorough, comprehensive and independent, root-and-branch review of An Garda Siochana."
Exact details of the independent review are to be outlined next week.
In the meantime, an external inquiry is being set up into the erroneous Garda statistics and prosecutions.
The Garda commissioner is also due to meet the chairwoman of the Policing Authority, one of the force's watchdogs, over her handling of the scandal before the end of the week.


All big projects have their crunch moments, and these pinch points will very often define the people involved.

For the Solar Impulse team it came over the northern Pacific Ocean in mid-summer last year.
Their pilot Andre Borschberg was in the midst of trying to make a crossing from Japan to Hawaii - the longest non-stop solo aeroplane flight in aviation history.
Although a routine journey for today's airline passengers, this 8,000km passage was full of uncertainty and danger for the Swiss adventurer's slow-moving, sun-powered vehicle.
Did it have the performance? Did he, on what would be a five-day and five-night feat of endurance?
And Andre had a major problem: one of his key safety systems wasn't working.
This was the electronic box he calls his "virtual co-pilot".
It's a system that monitors the plane while the human pilot rests, and will sound the alarm if the craft starts to do something it should not.
For the super-light Solar Impulse plane, easily buffeted by winds, a potentially disastrous situation could arise at anytime. The experienced hand of the aviator needs to be available to take control in the instant - something that would be delayed if he is in a deep slumber.
And so to proceed with continuous flight for several days and nights without this critical back-up seemed a risk too far.
At least that's what many of the team's engineers at mission control in Monaco thought. They wanted Andre to abort the crossing and turn back to Japan.  He, on the other hand, intended to press on. And that led to quite a bust-up.
"The weather window was constantly improving and I thought if I looked at the global risk of the situation this was a good window and I could manage the deficiency I had, and I decided to continue.
"But it was a drama because some of the engineers threatened to resign immediately as they did not understand my decisions," he told me.
"This was the first time for a dramatic and extremely important decision that we were not unanimous.
"I felt the situation was very difficult and very emotional. The technical decision for me was easy because I was prepared for that, but the emotional side of it was extremely strong, and I meditated the entire night. And when I saw the sun rise in the morning, I had the feeling I could throw these emotions out of the cockpit and really get into the flight."
The disagreements were resolved in a clear-the-air teleconference between the cockpit and mission control. But the drama left its mark on the dynamics of the team.
Fortuitously, as Andre now views it, the plane suffered damage to its batteries on the Pacific crossing, which meant it had to undergo some lengthy maintenance. It was an opportunity also to repair the team.
"We called in a friend of mine who is a captain with EasyJet," recalls Solar Impulse flight director Raymond Clerc.
"He is a trainer in that company for what we call CRM - Crew Resource Management.
"Each airline pilot has to do this every year. It's about improving communication between different teams. It's an approach used now in hospitals and police forces, and the like, but it came out of aviation.
"It was realised in the 70s and 80s that a lot of accidents were due to misunderstandings within the cockpit, for example between the captain and the co-pilot. You can have a very good aircraft but you can crash because the people do not understand each other.
"So we've done sessions with the engineers and the pilots, in the "classroom", and I think it's had a good effect."
Andre likens the sessions to "couples therapy".
What has emerged, he believes, is a more solid team, a stronger unit - one that will be better able to deal with any future crises.
Solar Impulse now stands ready to try to complete its circumnavigation of the globe.
Last year, it travelled from Abu Dhabi, UAE, to Kalaeloa, Hawaii. If the weather is kind, the plane will seek to fly to the US West Coast in the coming days.
Andre's business partner and project chairman, Bertrand Piccard, will be at the controls for the first leg, which will aim for one of Phoenix, Los Angeles, San Francisco or Vancouver.
The hope is to be in New York in June to begin preparations for an Atlantic crossing. If Solar Impulse gets that done successfully, it should be a relatively straightforward run to the finishing line in Abu Dhabi.
"Before the flight from Japan there was still a very big question mark," says Andre. "Would we be able to do it? Would the airplane be capable? Would we have enough performance? And of course this is now done; it has been demonstrated, and we go to the next leg with a high level of confidence.
"It's still not easy because the weather is not totally predictable. But the longest flight we needed to do is done. So from an exploration point of view and a technical point of view, I think we are in a very good position."
LEG 1: 9 March. Abu Dhabi (UAE) to Muscat (Oman) - 772km; 13 Hours 1 Minute
LEG 2: 10 March. Muscat (Oman) to Ahmedabad (India) - 1,593km; 15 Hours 20 Minutes
LEG 3: 18 March. Ahmedabad (India) to Varanasi (India) - 1,170km; 13 Hours 15 Minutes
LEG 4: 18 March. Varanasi (India) to Mandalay (Myanmar) - 1,536km; 13 Hours 29 Minutes
LEG 5: 29 March. Mandalay (Myanmar) to Chongqing (China) - 1,636km; 20 Hours 29 Minutes
LEG 6: 21 April. Chongqing (China) to Nanjing (China) - 1,384km; 17 Hours 22 Minutes
LEG 7: 30 May. Nanjing (China) to Nagoya (Japan) - 2,942km; 1 Day 20 Hours 9 Minutes
LEG 8: 28 June. Nagoya (Japan) to Kalaeloa, Hawaii (USA) - 8,924km; 4 Days 21 Hours 52 Minutes


Ulster back-row forward Chris Henry has signed a new two-year contract which will keep him at the Kingspan Stadium until June 2019.

The 32-year-old flanker has made 156 appearances for Ulster, having made his debut in 2009.
He has won 24 caps for Ireland since his international debut against Australia in 2010.
Henry said he wanted to be part of the successful future director of rugby Les Kiss was trying to build at Ulster.
"We have a core group of experienced players and a developing pathway of talented youngsters coming through," said Henry.
"I want to deliver on the pitch for Ulster but I also want to ensure that I'm assisting the academy players, who have aspirations to play professional rugby."
In November 2014 Henry suffered a mini-stroke but, after heart surgery, was able to resume playing the following March.
"Chris has been unfortunate with injuries and illness over the past couple of seasons but he has worked extremely hard to get back," said Kiss.
"He has been a key player for us for a number of years and represents everything that is good about Ulster.
"The player market is becoming increasingly competitive as a result of big budgets in France and England, but I am delighted we have been able to retain Chris until at least the summer of 2019."


Canada plans to join the US-led campaign of air strikes against Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq, its government has said.

A motion authorising the mission is expected to pass on Monday in the House of Commons.
The six-month mission will include CF-18 fighter jets and refuelling and surveillance aircraft, but not ground troops.
PM Stephen Harper said it was intended to "significantly degrade" IS.
Canada has more than two dozen military advisers already in Iraq.
The US has undertaken its own air strike campaign in Iraq for several weeks and in Syria for almost two weeks.
The plan put forward in parliament by Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird asks Canadian lawmakers to "recognise that the leadership of the terrorist group known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) has called on its members to target Canada and Canadians at home and abroad".
Mr Harper said that if "left unchecked" IS could grow quickly.
"As a government, we know our ultimate responsibility is to protect Canadians, and to defend our citizens from those who would do harm to us and to our families," he said, according to broadcaster CBC.
Such an air strike mission must be debated and voted on in Canada's Parliament, but Mr Harper's Conservative MPs have a majority of seats, so it is expected to pass.
Canada's opposition parties have pressed Mr Harper to be more transparent about the plans.
Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau said on Friday his party would not support the motion.
New Democratic Party leader Thomas Mulcair did not make a similar pronouncement but said he questioned the wisdom of getting involved in Iraq.
"The prime minister insists this mission in Iraq will not be allowed to become a quagmire," Mr Mulcair said, according to CBC.
"But isn't that precisely what our American allies have been facing in Iraq for the last 10 years?"
Canada did not join the US coalition that invaded in Iraq in 2003.
If the motion passes as expected, Canada will join a number of other countries that have joined the US in air strikes in either Syria or Iraq against IS, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the UK and France. Australia and Turkey have recent authorised military force for similar missions.â€‹


Royal Mail has released a limited edition stamp sheet at post offices in five UK cities including Belfast to mark the Lunar New Year, also known as Chinese New Year.

The sheet contains images of past celebrations in Belfast, Cambridge, Sheffield, Cardiff and Edinburgh.
It features 20 first class firework stamps alongside pictures of Chinese lanterns and firecrackers.
The year of the sheep begins on 19 February.
Royal Mail spokesperson Philip Parker said the stamps were "visually striking" and hoped that they would "make a great contribution to the 2015 celebrations".
People in Belfast marked the start of the Chinese New Year on Sunday, with a cultural festival at the Ulster Hall.