GARY Gold was left to curse Newcastle Falcons’ second-half shortcomings as they blew a six-point half-time lead in the Roman City.
Shipping three tries in 10 minutes, the Falcons even had to rely on a last-minute touchline conversion from captain Jimmy Gopperth to claw back a losing bonus point from Gold’s first league game in charge.
The director of rugby said: “Obviously I am happy to have got the bonus point at the end there and the way we battled back, but I am not remotely satisfied with the overall outcome of the game.
“That seems to be the way it is when you play away in the Premiership, and we were very disappointed with the result.”
With scrum-half Will Chudley tapping a quick penalty for the Falcons’ third try with time having elapsed on the official game clock, Gold admitted: “I was very encouraged by the fact that we did not give up even after 80 minutes, and we have got to keep working at it.
“I said from day one that we as the new coaching team are not going to be able to wave a magic wand, but the thing we did promise is that the guys would give their all for 80 minutes and beyond. They did that on Saturday, and you can see the spirit.”
Newcastle’s losing bonus point was remarkably their first on the road in almost a year-and-a-half of league action, the previous one having come in September 2010 at Exeter’s Sandy Park.
And they needed all of their resolve to stay in the hunt after home wing Olly Woodburn raced in for the first of his two tries down the right on 17 minutes.
Two tries in 11 minutes fired the visitors into a 14-8 half-time lead as No 8 Mark Wilson collected a miss-pass from Gopperth to dive into the left corner, before hooker Rob Vickers squirmed over from a close-range ruck on the half-hour.
Then came the two pivotal moments, firstly Woodburn being awarded a second try as referee Dean Richards deemed him to have beaten Suka Hufanga to a bouncing ball, and secondly the penalty try given for Gopperth’s tug on former team-mate Tom Biggs.
Gold said: “The penalty try was a completely legitimate decision, and you will get no argument from me on that one. The referee got it absolutely right, and it was Woodburn’s try that was the game-changer. Both he and Suka dived on the ball at exactly the same time, and the officials were at least 20 yards behind the incident. It was against the run of play, but that’s the way it goes and credit to Bath for taking their chance.
“It was unfortunate because it took the wind out of our sails at a crucial time.”
Gopperth and Heathcote exchanged a further penalty apiece, but Newcastle’s first-half efforts were not matched after the break until Chudley’s late score and Gopperth’s all-important conversion.
Gold conceded: “Bath were much the better team in the second half, and credit must go to them for that.
“They used the width of the field better than we did and they are going to ask questions of any team in this league. We showed a lot of courage, though. We worked hard and held on to the ball very effectively when we had it inside their 22 to score a couple of good tries, but you cannot just play for 40 minutes in this league.”
The director of rugby also cast an injury doubt over Suka Hufanga for this weekend’s visit of London Irish with the Tongan winger suffering from concussion after a head-on-head contact, while scrum-half Chris Pilgrim also picked up a knock to the shoulder.
BATH: S Vesty, O Woodburn, M Banahan, O Barkley (M Carraro, 65), T Biggs, T Heathcote, M Claassens (C Cook, 75); D Flatman (N Catt, 56), L Mears (P Dixon, 68), A Perenise (K Palma-Newport, 75), D Attwood, R Caldwell, B Skirving (G Mercer, 73), F Louw (captain, J Ovens, 78), S Taylor.
Scorers – Tries: O Woodburn 2, Penalty try, A Perenise. Conversions: T Heathcote 2. Penalties: O Barkley, T Heathcote.
NEWCASTLE FALCONS: G Goosen, R Shortland, J Helleur, J Fitzpatrick, S Hufanga, J Gopperth (captain), C Pilgrim (W Chudley, 68); G Shiells (J Golding, 56), R Vickers (M Thompson, 67), E Murray, A Fondse, T Swinson (A Van der Heijden, 65), W Welch, A Hogg, M Wilson.
Sin-bin: J Gopperth (55 mins)
Scorers – Tries: M Wilson, R Vickers, W Chudley. Conversions: J Gopperth 3. Penalties: J Gopperth.
Referee: Dean Richards
Attendance: 11,944
