We made it difficult, concedes Hooper

BATH director of rugby Stuart Hooper was left to rue his side’s lack of possession and tendency to concede penalties after their 20-13 Gallagher Premiership defeat to Newcastle Falcons at The Rec on Saturday.

It was a second successive Premiership defeat for Bath ahead of a West Country derby against Bristol on Friday, but Newcastle built impressively on a battling display against league champions Harlequins six days ago.

Bath also saw their England flanker Sam Underhill limp off after taking a blow to his knee inside the opening 15 minutes.

Bath, minus half-backs Danny Cipriani and Ben Spencer, offered little in attack apart from some creative flair shown by centre Max Ojomoh, who claimed a try nine minutes from time, with Orlando Bailey adding two penalties and a conversion. Reflecting on the loss, Bath rugby director Stuart Hooper, pictured, said: “We didn’t have a set-piece in the firsthalf. We got penalised at scrumtime, and then we gave away breakdown penalties to compound that. We sorted a few things out in the scrum, but we still struggled to hold on to the ball and build pressure.

“Whichever way you play in the Premiership, you’ve got to build pressure through territory or possession, and today we didn’t get either. We didn’t have set-piece dominance, so it makes it very difficult.”

Hooper, meanwhile, praised Ojomoh, son of former England flanker Steve Ojomoh, adding: “I thought Max was outstanding. He made right decisions, and we need to make sure we can deliver a performance across the board like he did today.”