Falcons battle back to snatch a rare league win
Newcastle shrugged off the jet-lag of their North American mission last weekend to snatch a rare league victory yesterday in a match of wildly swinging fortunes at the Recreation Ground.
The visitors – who had lost to Saracens in Philadelphia last Sunday – raced into a 19-0 lead in the first half with tries by scrum-half Sonatane Takulua, prop Rob Vickers and right wing DTH van der Merwe.
But Bath came back with 32 unanswered points of their ow n , through tr i e s by st and- in fu ll- back Matt Ba na h a n , wi n g Se m e s a Rokoduguni, lock Charlie Ewels and centre Jonathan Joseph.
Newcastle had the last word though.
Not content with a bonuspoint try from Chris Harris and a losing bonus point, they surged back to seize the win with a fifth try from flanker Mark Wilson. Joel Hodgson nervelessly converted both.
Two tries, in as many minutes, had put the visitors in control early on and the dynamic hooker, Santiago Socino, had a hand in both.
First he broke free from Elliott Stooke’s grasp to put Takulua clear. The scrum-half converted his own try and, almost immediately, a second by Vickers.
The third try came six minutes later, needing the TMO to confirm that Takulua had not knocked on at a ruck be f o r e Va n d e Me rw e swooped down on Willis’ deftly delivered kick to the right corner.
At 19- 0 down, and being thoroughly schooled at the breakdown, Bath desperately needed a score.
It came on 29 minutes when Banahan stretched out a long arm to touch down in the corner, after hooker Jack Walker broke from the tail of a Newcastle line-out and Max Clark was tackled just short of the line.
Priestland converted and added a penalty just before half- time to reward a minirevival in the last 10 minutes.
Another penalty immediately after the interval from the Welsh fly-half pulled the score back to 13-19 and, moments later, Rokoduguni unleashed his unique combination of power and pace to sprint from half-way to score an unconverted try in the corner.
When Ewels followed up to touch down, after Paul Grant just failed to claim the try, and Priest land converted, Bath were in the lead for the first time at 25-19.
That was 15 points in just nine minutes.
After Joseph weaved his way through the now-porous Newcastle defence from just inside his own half to earn a bonus point, Priestland’s conversion made it 32 unanswered points by the home team.
But Newcastle had the last word, thanks to Harris and Wilson.