| Bath: (3) 13 |
| Try: Ojomoh Con: Bailey Pens: Bailey 2 |
| Newcastle: (20) 20 |
| Tries: Radwan, Stephens, McGuigan Con: Haydon-Wood Pen: Haydon-Wood |
Three first-half tries ensured Newcastle romped to a 20-13 victory over Bath at the Recreation Ground.
Adam Radwan, Iwan Stephens and George McGuigan put Newcastle deservedly 20-3 ahead at half-time.
Max Ojomoh powered over with nine minutes to go, but it was too late.
A last minute Orlando Bailey penalty meant Bath went away with a losing bonus point, but for the second year running they have lost their opening two Premiership fixtures.
Both sides came into the match looking for their first wins of the season after defeats in round one; Bath narrowly lost 20-19 to Sale Sharks, while Newcastle were defeated 26-20 by Harlequins.
It was Newcastle, who finished 10th last season, who started strong from the off. Bath saw their scrum collapse four times in the opening minutes under sustained pressure, and then had Sam Underhill depart after just 11 minutes with injury.
Seconds later Radwan was in for Newcastle’s first try, making a dummy then using his pace to side-step two defenders and run across the line.
Stephens got their second after 34 minutes – the pair both also scored in the opener against Harlequins. The 19-year-old winger crossed in the corner on the left and then McGuigan added a third right on the half-time whistle. He ran over unopposed after being let loose from a line-out.
Newcastle could easily have been ahead by more than 20-3 at that point, had it not been for a penalty and two conversions missed by Will Haydon-Wood.
Bath were without Danny Cipriani through injury and notably lacked creativity throughout.
Their afternoon seemed to get worse when Miles Reid was sent to the sin bin after 52 minutes, but it was not until late in the second half that they managed to get more points on the board.
Ojomoh bundled over from close range with nine minutes to go before Bailey added a penalty, but it was too little too late to challenge for the victory.
Bath head coach Stuart Hooper told BBC Radio Bristol:
“I think we gave them too many easy chances, whether that be from a penalty or from a turnover. We didn’t respect the ball enough. Ultimately, we know they’re a quality team particularly on the turnover and our penalty count in the first half put us on the back foot.
“The scrum is a foundation for that and the penalties we gave away there absolutely put us on the back foot, so we had to change the picture hence the reason we made the changes at half-time.
“Whether we played in front of fans today or not, that’s a disappointing performance. From our perspective, we understand that what we delivered today out there is not what we want to be delivering. The key is now that we go away and we fix it.
“The way we coughed the ball up in the first half and then gave them penalties at scrum and line-out is not the way to win in the Premiership.”
Newcastle head coach Dave Walder:
“We scored 20 points in the first 30 minutes, and we had hoped to kick on and score that fourth try.
“We had enough opportunities, and I think we just lacked a little bit of accuracy at key times.
“But if you had offered me a win this morning, I would have snapped your hand off. The Rec is a tough place to come, and I thought we controlled the game really well.”
Bath: De Glanville; Rokoduguni, Joseph, Ojomoh, Muir; Bailey, Fox; Schoeman, Dunn, Jonker, Williams, Ewels, Reid, Underhill, Bayliss.
Replacements: Du Toit, Obano, Rae, Ellis, Coetzee, Green, Butt, Clark.
Sin bin: Reid (52).
Newcastle: Penny; Radwan, Stevenson, Lucock, Stephens; Haydon-Wood, Schreuder; Brocklebank, McGuigan, Palframan, Peterson, Robinson, Van der Walt, Welch, Fearns.
Replacements: Blamire, Cooper, Tampin, Fuser, Graham, Nordli-Kelemeti, Connon, Wacokecoke.
Sin bin: Schrueder (80 mins).
Referee: Craig Maxwell-Keys (RFU).
