Newcastle Falcons began the new Aviva Premiership campaign with defeat to Bath, at Kingston Park, on Saturday night.

The Falcons, who gave debuts to a whole host of new signings, including man-of-the-match Richard Mayhew, fell short of their West Country counterparts in a very physical contest.

Newcastle went behind on eight minutes thanks to a converted Matt Carraro try. Carraro showed a good turn of pace to slice through the Falcons rearguard and touchdown, with in form Sam Vesty adding the extras.

Despite the early set-back, Alan Tait’s men showed great character to claw themselves back into the game courtesy of a Jimmy Gopperth penalty. The Aviva Premiership Golden Boot winner for the last two years got his chance in front of the posts, following an excellent period of Falcons pressure.

On 15 minutes, Vesty extended the visitors lead to 10-3 with a well-taken 30 metre drop goal, before Gopperth reduced the arrears five minutes later with a sweetly struck penalty.

Patient build up by the northeasterners presented the Kiwi with the chance to get his points tally well and truly underway.

With the score poised at 10-6 to Bath, Gopperth attempted an audacious penalty kick from just inside his own half. But the No.10 was unable get enough purchase on the kick and the score remained the same.

Vesty demonstrated his kicking ability eight minutes from the break, to surge into a 13-6 lead, before Newcastle hit back with another Gopperth penalty on the stroke of half-time to reduce the arrears to 13-9. 

Shortly after the half-time interval, Bath pulled away from the Kingston Park outfit through another Vesty penalty. Newcastle sprung into action and were very nearly in for a well-worked try involving the quick hands of Jamie Helleur and Gopperth. A scrambling Bath defence saw to the danger posed by a blistering Falcons attack.

James Hall made a welcome return to action following a serious injury, with more than 20 minutes left on the clock, replacing Grant Shiells in the front row. The Stoke-on-Trent man will have been pleased to have got some valuable game time under his belt.

Fly-half Vesty steered his side clear of Newcastle with a penalty in the closing stages to secure a 22-9 victory.

Head coach Alan Tait said: “There is enough character in there to tell me that we will come good this season. I thought Richard was outstanding, as well as Ashley Wells and Greg Goosen and they put their hands up and put a good performance in.

“You have to give praise to Bath’s defence and ex rugby league man Brad Davies, their defence coach has got them working well together.” 

NEWCASTLE
15 Greg Goosen
14 Luke Fielden
13 Luke Eves
12 Jamie Helleur
11 Alex Tait
10 Jimmy Gopperth
9 Chris Pilgrim
 
1 Grant Shiells
2 Rob Vickers
3 Ashley Wells
4 James Hudson
5 Andrew van der Heijden
6 Mark Wilson
7 Will Welch
8 Richard Mayhew

Replacements
16 Joe Graham
17 Dan Frazier
18 James Hall
19 Tim Swinson
20 Ally Hogg
21 Jordi Pasqualin
22 James Fitzpatrick
23 Tom Catterick


BATH
15 Nick Abendanon

14 Matt Carraro

13 Dan Hipkiss

12 Ben Williams

11 Tom Biggs

10 Sam Vesty

9 Michael Claassens


1 David Flatman

2 Pieter Dixon

3 Duncan Bell

4 Ryan Caldwell

5 Stuart Hooper

6 Carl Fearns

7 Guy Mercer

8 Simon Taylor



Replacements
16 Ross Batty

17 Nathan Catt

18 Kane Palma-Newport

19 Dave Attwood

20 Ben Skirving

21 Mark McMillan

22 Paul Roberts

23 Jack Cuthbert