Depleted Bath edge out battling Falcons

Newcastle Falcons were unable to win a third successive Premiership game yesterday, losing a tight encounter in Bath 23-14.

After an even first half ended with a 10-7 lead for a Bath side missing a large number of internationals, the hosts took the game to the Falcons in the second half and on another day would have had their try bonus point secure after less than an hour.

As it was, Newcastle defended valiantly and only a late Gavin Henson penalty denied the Falcons a losing bonus point?

The Falcons welcomed back Sinoti Sinoti and George McGuigan from injury, while Dean Richards also named Sean Robinson in the back row for his Premiership debut. Simon Hammersley and Alesana Tuilagi made their first league starts since September.

The early stages were to and fro with both sides looking to unleash their dangerous back lines. Henson was already pulling strings for Bath at fly-half, while two early misses from the tee were blots for Juan Pablo Socino.

The Roman city side drew first blood with a Henson penalty before the Falcons put together a good spell of possession. With help from his TMO, referee Ian Tempest ruled that Calum Green had been held up when the lock rumbled over in the left corner, even though both sides were preparing for a conversion. However, shortly afterwards the formations were repeated as from a rolling maul Mark Wilson's third try in as many league games gave the Falcons the lead, Socino converting.

Bath captain Stuart Hooper turned the scoreline around however with a converted try that made the scoreline 10-7 to the home team at the break, but the Falcons were very much in the game and there was no reason for the illustrious hosts to be complacent.

Complacent they were not, and Bath came out of half-time intent on putting the game to bed quickly. While Scott Lawson was introduced for the visitors, he had no immediate opportunity for any trademark attacking carries as Bath pressed Newcastle back into the 22 for the first half hour of the second period.

The Falcons fronted up in defence though, and it took a moment of dynamism by centre Jonathan Joseph to break the second-half deadlock. The centre, overlooked by England so far this autumn, picked out a line through the Falcons defence and made a great run to score, although there was more than a suspicion of blocking in the build-up.

A yellow card for Socino and a second penalty by Henson looked to have put the game beyond the Falcons at 20-7 with fifteen minutes left, but if anything the Geordies were galvanised and were able to put some attacking play together. Lawson was held up, the referee again consulting his TMO, but Sinoti made a classic run to fight his way over for a try converted by replacement Rory Clegg.

The Falcons looked good for a bonus point until with less than two minutes left, Henson slotted a simple penalty, securing Bath's win and leaving Newcastle with no reward from a difficult but encouraging evening in the South West.