Flood marks his century by hauling the Falcons off bottom spot
Newcastle Falcons finally moved away from the bottom of the Gallagher Premiership table as they achieved their first home win of the season at the fourth attempt.
Three penalties and a conversion from Toby Flood in his 100th appearance for the club proved decisive as the teams shared two tries in a match where the performances largely failed to fulfil the pre-match ambitions of the men in charge.
Dean Richards, the Falcons’ director of coaching, admitted they needed to adopt a more attackminded approach, while Bath counterpart Todd Blackadder had spent the past week encouraging his squad to play with more freedom.
The response from their players will have disappointed the coaches, particularly in a first half, when handling mistakes and a series of penalties ensured the bulk of the action was in the middle third of the pitch. Newcastle enjoyed the cushion of an early penalty from Flood, who led them out as captain to mark his century. Bath had the majority of the possession before the interval, despite losing Tom Horner and Freddie Burns through injury after only 12 minutes.
Semesa Rokoduguni’s failure to cling on to a pass in the 24th minute deprived Bath of an excellent chance, but Blackadder’s side put points on the board in the 27th minute through Ruaridh Mcconnochie, the replacement for Horner.
Mcconnochie went over in the corner for an unconverted try and the pace of the England sevens international might have earned a second had the ball bounced more kindly for him.
The Falcons had not scented a try before they were rewarded for Flood’s decision to kick into the corner. Glen Young won the lineout and Sam Stuart sent in Johnny Williams for a try that was converted by Flood to give them a fivepoint lead. That was reduced to two by Darren Atkins’s penalty six minutes into the second half, when the entertainment level rose slightly.
A threatened comeback failed to materialise as two more penalties from Flood confirmed defeat for Bath in a game Blackadder considered crucial to their chances of challenging the top four.
In the night’s other fixture, tries by Nick Schonert and Ryan Mills helped Worcester to a 20-13 win over Harlequins at Sixways.