Dean Richards chose to deploy the Premiership’s second-top points-scorer of all-time in an Adam Sandler role. It proved to be a luxury that Newcastle’s director of rugby could afford as Andy Goode – lured out of retirement on a three-month contract by the man who gave him his first-team break at Leicester 17 years ago – went about his Waterboy duties for the Falcons.
The match clock had clicked down to zero when the veteran fly-half entered the arena to furnish Craig Willis with the kicking tee for the final act of a dramatic afternoon on rain-lashed Tyneside. Willis, retained by Richards for his second start at outside-half despite the arrival of Goode, had kicked Newcastle into a 16-14 lead and the 22-year-old Teessider made no mistake with the last-gasp penalty that rubber-stamped the first win of the season that lifted them off the foot of the table.
A product of the Falcons’ academy fly-half factory that delivered Jonny Wilkinson and Toby Flood, Willis did not quite have a perfect day, missing three of his eight shots at goal, but he weighed in with 14 points – four penalties and a conversion – and made an assured contribution in the pivotal role for a side that looked far from relegation material. “It’s a great start to the year,” Willis said. “All of a sudden one win lifts everything.”
Next up for the upwardly mobile Falcons is a trip to face new basement boys London Irish next Sunday.
As for Bath, their season continues to stutter and splutter. “The players need to have a look at themselves and ask if they were mentally ready to play,” their head coach, Mike Ford, said. “It was not good enough.”
It was all the more frustrating for the visiting camp that they failed to follow through after crossing the whitewash from their first attacking foray, their captain, Guy Mercer, scoring from a lineout drive in the sixth minute.
It was a sucker punch of a try to concede but, after Rhys Priestland butchered the conversion, Newcastle proceeded to get their act together. And impressively so.
Willis pulled back three points with a 13th-minute penalty and started to pull the strings with some assurance as the home pack gained momentum.
It was a fixture from their front row who put them ahead in the 20th minute, the loosehead prop, Rob Vickers, burrowing over from a ruck on the right after the former Scotland back-rower Ally Hogg took a quick tap penalty. Willis added the extras and while Priestland landed a penalty at the other end the force remained with the Falcons.
Vickers came within an inch of a second try after a fearsome maul straight out of the Deano manual but Bath lost Henry Thomas to the sin-bin, the prop taking the rap for persistent offside by the back-pedalling visiting pack. They fell further behind, Willis’s second penalty success giving the Falcons a thoroughly deserved 13-8 half-time lead.
By the start of the second half, the rain was lashing in almost horizontally – ideal conditions for one of those good old Kingston Park muggings of yore. Bath clawed their way back in the third quarter, though, Priestland landing two further penalties before making way for Ford, nudging the visitors in front 14-13. The fightback, however, was merely fleeting.
Willis regained the lead with a penalty 10 minutes from time, then struck again for good measure when Bath were penalised for deliberate obstruction in overtime. Newcastle had their first Premiership win of 2016. One more and they will match their tally of 2015.
