Falcons’ rain dance puts Bath under the weather
SCOTT MacLeod believes Dean Richards has been given a selection headache by the Falcons who defied a wet and windy North East night to put Bath to the sword.
The line-out coach was impressed with the way his side dealt with the tough autumnal conditions at Kingston Park to take their unbeaten run to five games.
Falcons controlled and dominated this Premiership Cup clash throughout to make it two wins and a draw from their opening Pool 1 games, and give themselves a good chance of progressing to the next stage.
Micky Young, Simon Hammersley and Sinoti Sinoti made light work of the drenched pitch to run in three tries while Joel Hodgson conquered the conditions to kick well from hand and turf.
All Bath could muster was a late consolation try from replacement Josh Bayliss, and while a contented MacLeod was hardly simulating Gene Kelly’s Singing in the Rain that blurted out from the speakers at the end, the former Scotland forward was still slightly chirpy.
He insisted: “It was a tough night, the weather conditions were awful and you can forgive a few mistakes when it’s as bad as that. It was a scrappy old game and we are a little disappointed not to get the bonus point. But it’s a win and we can’t be too down because we’re building some momentum for the return to the Premiership.
“The supporters who came out, and not only that but stayed out, during that wind and rain deserve a medal, and at least we were able to get the win for them. Yes, we would have liked a bit more, but we’re moving forward.
“It’ll be tough to pick the team for next week, that’s for sure. There were plenty of strong performances from players who want the chance to start at Harlequins in the Premiership next Friday.
“It’s probably a sign of how far we’ve come as a club that we can be so low key after a reasonably comfortable victory, but we’re setting high standards and always looking to improve.”
He added: “I thought both second rows played well. Andrew Davidson was worthy of his man of the match award and it was nice to see John Hardie coming on from the bench for his home debut. He’ll be a big asset to this team, Joel Hodgson went well again at ten and there were a number of guys who stood up.”
Falcons at least managed to produced some decent attacks from forward superiority, but Bath were never able to get a foothold in proceedings.
The visitors found themselves 10-0 down at the break with busy scrumhalf Young finishing off a fine move manufactured by Davidson and Alex Tait, and Hodgson adding a penalty with Bath’s defence under constant pressure.
Falcons came out in the second half in the same attacking vein with fullback Hammersley racing across the Bath line after a strong burst from Johnny Williams, and then a fine inside pass from Hodgson.
The introduction of powerful wing Joe Cokanasiga, and Falcons now making a few errors, helped Bath gain some ascendancy.
But they had to wait until four minutes from time for Bayliss to take advantage of a wayward Newcastle pass to run clear down field for a consolation try converted by Alex Davies.