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3 hours ago
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Bath returned to the summit of the Prem, exposing the gulf between top and bottom with maximum points at Kingston Park.
Despite resting several front-liners, they ran in eight tries to bounce back from last week’s Champions Cup defeat in Toulon emphatically. They simply had too much firepower for Newcastle who were shut out for the last 53 minutes of the game.
If there was a disparity between the starting lineups, the bench mis-match was colossal and the Bath head coach Johann van Graan rubbed it in by introducing all eight at once with 25 minutes to go.
There was an element of shock and awe about the move as the likes of Sam Underhill, Ted Hill and Thomas du Toit emerged from the fog.
Bath, leading 33-14 at the time, made it count, easing away with three more fine tries to reach their half-century. They head into Saturday’s clash with third-placed Northampton at the Rec in excellent shape. As for Newcastle the wait for take-off after the Red Bull takeover in the summer continues.
There is no doubt they are improving – successive Challenge Cup victories in Europe were an indication of as much – but this was their 19th successive league defeat. Their last league win was on 29 November last year against Saracens back when the Prem was just the plain old Premiership.
They are no longer short of money but the business of buying in talent is not as straightforward as Red Bull perhaps thought it might be when they bought the club. The big movers at present like George Martin are choosing more established top-end clubs.
The sense is that they will get there in the end – it is inconceivable they will not with the backing they now enjoy – but it is proving not to be a case of simply waving a wand.
Another sell-out at Kingston Park demonstrated the enthusiasm for the revolution among the north-east public. When it begins to bear fruit, Newcastle are going to need a bigger ground. Entertainment is the name of the match-day game at Newcastle under the new owners and the Christmas tunes were trotted out during breaks in play which kept morale up but they are still to register a single point this season.
They gave Bath a pretty good run for their money in the first half, getting away to a dream start with the flanker Ollie Leatherbarrow surging through for the game’s opening try in the fourth minute only for two tries from Bath’s hooker Dan Frost to regain the initiative for the visitors. First, Frost was on the back of a lineout drive before he burst through the home defence and stretched over for a second. The TMO took a long look at the grounding with a question mark over whether he had lost control of the ball but the try was eventually allowed.
Newcastle, though, regained the lead in the 27th minute with the No 8 Amanaki Mafi finishing off a lineout drive. But once the Bath prop Archie Griffin had thundered his way over from close range to open up a 19-14 interval lead, Bath pulled away.
Francois van Wyk used his power to secure the bonus point three minutes after the break and maintain the front row monopoly on the try scoring.
The loss of the centre Sammy Arnold for ball-killing after an eye-catching break by Bath’s second row Ewan Richards added to Newcastle’s problems. Will Butt crossed for Bath’s fifth while the Red Bulls were short-handed.
At that point the Bath heavy mob, plus their captain Ben Spencer, rumbled on. It did not leave the visitors anything in the way of wiggle room had they picked up an injury but they did not need any.
Tom de Glanville went over in the corner with 13 minutes left from a lovely pass by Spencer and two minutes later the England scrum-half finished off a flowing length-of-the-field break out. It was the try of the game from the impressive champions who added an eighth in the last minute through Hill.
