Have Bath rugby discovered what has been wrong with their back-line for longer than I care to remember? Probably not, but let's not underestimate the impact of moving Olly Barkley to fly-half and introducing Ryan Davis from the bench at inside centre following the departure of Andy Dunne. Suddenly Bath had a situation where two attack-minded youngsters had it in their gift to ignore the current "Bath style" and instead adopt a system more to their liking. And boy, what a difference these lads made. One has to wonder whether the coaches will be brave enough to make these lads start as the 10/12 combination when injuries are not impacting on the team? Knowing our coaches preference for safety-first the answer is probably not.

Up to this moment Bath had secured the majority of possession but were unable to make any in-roads thorough the Newcastle defence. It was a definite case of "more of the same" for the first 30 minutes and the Bath faithful must have been thinking "here we go again"! I for one was thinking I would be writing a report along the lines of "played 4, lost 4".

Bath had lost their first three games and Newcastle only won for the first time last week but home advantage must have made the Geordies slight favourites before kick-off. We were all expecting an afternoon of frustration and after only a few moments the West Country cries of "Everytime Ref, Everytime"! could be heard ringing out from all corners of Kingston park.

Bath got off to a good start with an early Olly Barkley penalty in front of the Falcons' posts, following a series of Bath scrums but Matt Burke slotted the ball through the Bath posts five minutes later to even up the score. However the first play after the re-start saw Charvis penalised to give Barkley another shot at goal but he missed the difficult opportunity.

Twenty minutes in to the game Newcastle took the lead when Dave Walder scuffed a drop goal but managed to give the ball sufficient air to clear the cross-bar but within a minute Barkley had an opportunity to equalise from 41 metres, unfortunately he hit the upright. Newcastle could have taken the score to 9-3 after referee Rowden adjudged Bath to be offside at a ruck, fortunately Burke missed his kick. Nevertheless Bath were determined to give the home side an opportunity to stretch their lead and conceded another simple penalty after 31 minutes.

Five minutes before half-time Olly Barkley missed a simple penalty in the Newcastle "twenty-two", following a Bath drive but if the long suffering Bath supporters who had made the long trek north thought that was bad, they were wholly frustrated as Jamie Noon made a dash up-field to set up Matt Burke for the opening try of the match to take the score to 16-3 with just a few moments to go before the break.

Cory Harris was sin binned for pulling down a maul in first half stoppage time to give Bath a player advantage and Steve Borthwick took up his attack-minded cudgels by opting for a catch and drive play from the penalty rather than go for goal. Unfortunately the Bath forwards knocked the ball forward just as they crossed the try-line to let the Falcons off the hook. However Bath again got hold of the ball following the Falcons' defensive five-metre scrum and set up a rolling maul. Matt Steven's snatched the ball, peeled off the back of the maul and swallow dived over the line to give Bath hope that they could get back in to the game. Barkley's conversion from the touchline was just short and so left the half-time score at 16-8. Little did we know what was to happen next!

After just a few moments of the second half Andrew Higgins set the tone for the game as he took Bath within two metres of the Newcastle line but a series of attacking phases and overlaps didn't result in a score. However Martyn Wood grabbed an opportunistic try under the posts, after 46 minutes, when everyone else stopped playing after the ball dropped out of a Bath rolling maul and this sparked the visitors into domination of the game. Barkley's conversion took the score to 16-15.

Halfway through the second half Bath secured a kickable penalty but once again skipper Borthwick had sufficient confidence in his team to kick for an attacking touchline move rather than go for goal. Bath then grabbed a five-metre scrum and the Falcons were caught offside yet again. Borthwick persisted with his touchline tactic and this time it paid off as the pack drove over the try line with Zac Feau'nati scoring to take the lead, 16-22.

Seventy minutes in to the game Bath scored their fourth try to secure a precious bonus point through a James Scaysbrook try to make the long journey home a pleasant one for players and supporters alike.

It would be too easy to get carried away with this win and think we've turned the corner having discovered how well Barkley and Davis played together. However, with all the disappointments we've had at the end of last season through to the first three games of this campaign, let's spend a while basking in a marvellous second half performance. Well done Bath Rugby, this is a fine victory and should provide a platform on which to start moving up the league table. Interestingly we are now just three points behind dear old Bristol and a home win against high-flying Glawster on 15 October could see us pass over them.

The coaches now have to look at this game and figure out what was different between the two halves (and our previous games) and why it was possible to score four tries. Hopefully they'll recognise that our limited game-plan has run its course and a new 10/12 inspired system is the way forward. The players will enjoy this system and we should start scoring more tries and winning games!

Unfortunately we now have two weeks of the new ridiculous format of the Powergen Cup getting in the way of the Premiership. Still a home win over Bristol next week should give us that little bit more confidence. As C'mon Bath would say - Bath by 15!

Referee: Ashley Rowden

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