Following a 55-19 victory for Bath over Newcastle Falcons in the Premiership on Saturday, here’s James While’s five takeaways from the Recreation Ground.
The top line
Bath formally confirmed their place in the 2024/25 Premiership semi-finals as they grabbed maximum points from a largely second string starting side as they treated The Rec to a superb seven-try win.
The catalyst was youngster Ciaran Donoghue. The fly-half made nine clean breaks and made over 250m as he delivered a magnificent Player of the Match performance in a memorable Premiership debut, scoring with his first touch of the game.
Bath’s other tries came from Tom Carr-Smith, Quinn Roux, Sam Underhill, Emens Austin, Louie Hennessey-Booth and Cam Redpath, with Falcons replying with the outstanding Cam Neild crossing and Connor Doherty grabbing a brace.
Bath’s ninth consecutive win means that they move into the play-offs at the top of the log with an unassailable points tally, and with home advantage now guaranteed. But the very best news for Bath is how the depth of their squad is developing and this win showed just how deep their talent pool is.
Donoghue shines
Arron Reed was odds on to grab the coveted ‘Try of the Season’ award after his 70m effort for Sale against Saracens on Friday. That was until Donoghue decided to take matters into his own hands in the very first minute at the Rec, as the Irish fly-half turned on a sixpence in his own half to run fully 70m to the corner to grab a worldie of a try on his Premiership debut.
Not content with one moment of brilliance, the youngster continued to shine with ball in attack, as he created a lovely try for Carr-Smith as he attacked the line flat to unload a pass for Hennessy-Booth to give Carr-Smith a simple run in.
Add in some lovely touches in the build up to Underhill’s try, the fantastic run down the right flank to set up Austin Evans for his second try and fans of both Ireland and of Bath will be tracking the progress of this fantastic youngster over the next few seasons as he looks to continue his great work in the Premiership Rugby Cup and Challenge Cup into the elite arenas.
Falcons pride
Without the threat of relegation, you might wonder what keeps Newcastle Falcons motivated, as they have spent most of the season rooted at the foot of the table as the perennial whipping boys of elite English rugby.
But the pride that bristles out of this team is clear to see; cruelly, they might be considered as something of an academy ground for the bigger clubs and the ongoing dispute with Bath over Guy Pepper is still something that rankles with Steve Diamond, but there’s little doubt of the quality of player they produce.
Against an absolutely elite combination of Bath’s five used back-rows, Neild was as good as any man on the pitch, and his combination with England discard Callum Chick and the big carrying Freddie Lockwood allows Falcons to remain competitive at any breakdown situation. In midfield, Doherty’s ability to pick off the hole vacated by Redpath after his yellow card showed sharp acceleration and high quality rugby thinking as he grabbed two tries in two minutes, ensuring that Falcons maintained their challenge until half time, something to be very proud of considering that Falcons were playing against the best defence in the Premiership.
Bath bombs
Still in the EPCR Challenge Cup, Bath are, to an extent, still fighting battles on two fronts as they bid for both glory in Europe and in the Premiership. You could therefore forgive Johann van Graan for giving his core stars an afternoon off with their feet up, but that’s not the way the Bath boss works, and his use of his bench to continue the South African tradition of replacement impact.
You might call them ‘The Bath Bomb’ but to see Tom Dunn, Thomas du Toit, Archie Griffin, Pepper, Finn Russell and Kepu Tuipulotu stroll on after 55 minutes was a flex right out of the Rassie playbook.
The impact of Russell and Donoghue combining was fantastic, as the young Irishman benefitted from the brilliance of the Lions 10 elect to put him through the Falcons line as the Dubliner moved to full-back to round off a superb personal performance.
Test watch
With plane seats now available for check-in for both the British and Irish Lions and of course for England’s summer tour to Argentina and America, Bath’s team may have been something of a shadow side, but nevertheless a few players put their hands up for places, reminding all of the depth of talent at The Rec.
At tighthead, Will Stuart crushed everything that came his way; the prop’s technique is slowly becoming picture perfect and he caused the Falcons front-row no end of issues, splitting Adam Brocklebank and Jamie Blamire at the seam and staying ramrod straight in his movements.
With such quality of back-rowers on view, the Bath trio of Underhill, Alfie Barbeary and Ted Hill all strutted their stuff with their usual excellence, but against them, Neild once again showed why he’s so highly rated by Diamond and other good judges. Test rugby may yet bypass the former Sale flanker, but there’s little doubt about his quality.
In the backline, Will Butt reminded all of his early season form before injury and suspension, whilst Redpath will surely tour with Scotland. The curve ball might just be Donoghue and Ireland; the fly-half is well capable of playing anywhere across the backline and, although callow and inexperienced, he might just thrive in the environment of Irish tour to Romania and Georgia in July.
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