Bath Go Top By Beating Newcastle

By John Baysting
March 9 2008

For a few hours on Saturday afternoon Bath topped the Premiership table after beating Newcastle 22-11 at the Rec. This was a game where the score proved more important than the performance however we should be disappointed to have only scored one try when bonus points are essential to our season run-in.

Bath moved to second place in the Guinness Premiership after beating Newcastle Falcons aat  wet Recreation Ground. Both sides where affected by international call-ups, wth Jonny Wilkinson, Mathew Tait, Toby Flood and Jamie Noon for Newcastle along with Stevens, Borthwick, Lipman and Mears absent for Bath.  Joe Maddock shone early in the game with a number of excellent high ball catches but it was his knock-on which set up the first scrum of the game. Aaron Jarvis was penalised for his poor binding and Ashley Rowden awarded Newcastle the first penalty. Newcastle’s full back Tom May slotted the penalty from 40 metres out in front of the posts taking the score to 0-3 on the third minute.  A few minutes later Newcastle conceded a penalty just inside Bath’s half, Barkley kicked to touch resulting in a line out on Newcastle’s 10 metre line. The ball was knocked straight back into touch by Newcastle lock Mark Sorensen advancing the lineout five metres. 

Ashley Rowden awarded Newcastle a penalty for holding. Newcastle then made a good clearence for their own lineout at the half way line. An overthrow by Matt Thompson however allowed Chris Goodman to recover the ball. After a few exchanges of kicks, Joe Maddock’s kick bounced to far and beyond the dead ball line resulting in a scrum from the place of the kick.

Bath dominated the scrum and was awarded a penalty with many congratulations for Duncan Bell from his team mates. Barkley slotted the penalty taking the score to 3-3  Newcastle fly half Steve Jones was replaced temporarily by back up scrum half James Grindal as a blood replacement. Shortly after coming on James Grindal was nearly charged down by Faamatuianu, the result of the pressure was a Bath lineout in good position.  Tom Cheeseman replaced Andy Higgins after 19 minutes after the Bath winger sustained an injury.  A minute later Bath scored the only try of the game when Shaun Berne’s pass found Alex Crockett who ran a great line right through the middle of the Falcons defence to touch down under the posts. Barkley made the simple conversion to take the score to 10-3.  The crowd enjoyed a few highlights including a rumbling run from young prop Aaron Jarvis, and a few exciting phases from Jonny Faamatuinu including a galloping run down the right wing, in which the ruck resulted in a Bath scrum. The play after the scrum was halted when the ref knocked deemed Joe Maddock to have knocked-on resulting in howls from fans near by who believed their was no knock-on. 

About five minutes before half-time Goodman conceded a penalty for playing the ball in the ruck on the half way line, Newcastle opted to go for goal but Tom May pushed his kick right of the posts .

After Berne kicked the ball deep right from the resulting drop 22, a few good phases of play left prop like wing John Rudd one on one with Michael Stephenson who did well to drag him into touch.  With a few seconds left in the half Danny Grewcock stole a Newcastle lineout and from this play Rowden awarded Bath a penalty 30 metres out in front of the posts, with Barkley receiving treatment the kicking duties was passed to Shaun Berne who made the kick and both sides heading in for half time with the score at 13-3.  Bath kicked off the second half with one change, Paulica Ion replacing Aaron Jarvis at tight head prop.  Shortly afterwards Maddock was charged down within his own twenty-two, the ball bouncing back past the try line. Stephenson showed great determination to make it back and pounce on the ball with inches to spare to save what seemed a certain try for Ollie Philips.  Later with Newcastle attacking inside Bath’s half, Ashley Rowden found himself at the bottom of a ruck after being caught up in Ion’s tackle of a Newcastle player. Causing many supporters to cheer around the Recreation ground. 

Moments later Maddock collided whilst in the air going for a high ball with a Newcastle player, he eventually managed to stand up and walk off the pitch by himself after what looked like quite a bad knock to the head. This caused reshuffling of the back line with Eli coming on to play outside centre, Stephenson moving to full back and Crockett to right wing.  Newcastle’s next score came after Bath where caught coming in at the side from a Newcastle maul, Tom May kicked the penalty from the left of the posts on the twenty-two, making the score 13-6.

Moments later Barkley was taken out of the air inside the twenty-two but no call was made by Rowden. Newcastle won the possession however Alex Tait (Mathew’s younger brother) knocked on and Bath decided to run from deep. Michael Claassens was tackled high in which the offender was very lucky to escape a yellow card. However Barkley slotted the resulting penalty increasing the score further to 16 – 6 with 62 minutes played.

Moments later Bath again decided to run from deep with Berne sending Crockett off down the right wing and the move would eventually advance 60 metres. Bath were awarded a penalty at the breakdown and once again Barkley extended the score to 19-6.

The next bit of good play came from a break from Olly Barkley who fed Fumiaono but was unfortunately didn’t have the support or the pace to make it and was dragged down about 10 metres out. Moments later Newcastle where caught holding on and Bath where awarded a penalty. A good kick good by Barkley took the score to 22 – 6. Bell and Grewcock replaced by Jarvis and Martin Purdy.  The next chance from Bath came when good hands from Stephenson and Crockett seemed to have put Cheeseman in for a try but he was tackled and caught holding on giving penalty to Newcastle.  Newcastle knocked-on five metres out, but Bath’s new front row struggled to contain Carl Hayman and the scrum was overturned. Newcastle chose two penalties for a scrum and applied pressure pushing replacement No. 8 Russell Winter over for a try. Tom May missed the conversion leaving the score at 22-11 with 21 seconds left. Newcastle then attempted to attack to gain something out of the game however a knock-on ended any plans they had, and also the game. 

My man of the match is Duncan Bell, who put in a great performance in the unusual position of loose head prop against former All Black, Carl Hayman. Honourable mention must also go to Shaun Berne who put in some good passes as well as very good and varied tactical kicking.

More photos from the game

Bath Rugby: 15. Joe Maddock   14. Michael Stephenson   13. Alex Crockett   12. Shaun Berne   11. Andrew Higgins   10. Olly Barkley   9. Michael Claassens   1. Duncan Bell   2. Pieter Dixon   3. Aaron Jarvis   4. Peter Short   5. Danny Grewcock   6. Chris Goodman   7. Jonny Fa'amatuainu   8. Daniel Browne   Replacements: 16. Rob Hawkins   17. Paulica Ion   18. Martin Purdy   19. Zak Feau'nati   20. Mike Baxter   21. Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu   22. Tom Cheeseman

Newcastle Falcons: 15. Tom May   14. Ollie Phillips   13. Tom Dillon   12. Alex Tait   11. John Rudd   10. Steve Jones   9. Lee Dickson   1. Jon Golding   2. Matt Thompson   3. Carl Hayman   4. Geoff Parling   5. Mark Sorenson   6. Brent Wilson   7. Ben Woods   8. Phil Dowson   Replacements: 16. Rob Vickers   17. Joe McDonnell   18. Tim Swinson   19. Russell Winter   20. James Grindal   21. Joe Shaw   22. Tim Visser

Referee: Ashley Rowden

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