Bath 11 Newcastle Falcons 6

ALAN TAIT has reacted angrily to Bath boss Steve Meehan’s suggestion that Newcastle Falcons’ players were to blame for prop Aaron Jarvis’ shoulder injury at the weekend.

Jarvis was injured as Bath dented Newcastle’s hopes of securing an LV=Cup semifinal spot by inflicting an 11-6 defeat at the Recreation Ground.

The Bath front rower, who scored the only try of the game, was injured in a scrum, and Meehan felt Newcastle’s forwards were culpable.

“I’m a bit upset about that,”

said the Bath head coach.

“The referee’s blown the whistle and the Newcastle scrum continues. That happened on a number of occasions and you’ve got a guy out with a shoulder injury.

“Their scrum had already been spoken to about that.

There was some action that could have been taken there.

It continued for a couple of scrums and then they cut it out.”

However, Newcastle head coach Tait disputed Meehan’s version of events, and insisted his players were not to blame.

“I think it’s what can happen if players are not up to this level,” said Tait. “I think he’s Bath’s third or fourthchoice prop, isn’t he?

“We gave away daft penalties, but the boys were really frustrated because the referee seemed to be letting Bath get away with things.”

Newcastle were the better side during a tight first half, and claimed a 6-0 lead thanks to two Jimmy Gopperth penalties.

But Bath scored the only try of the game on the stroke of half-time, with quick line-out ball setting up a multi-phase move that ended with Jarvis crossing.

Olly Barkley’s conversion attempt hit the post, but after Euan Murray was sin-binned for killing the ball at a ruck, the fly-half kicked Bath into the lead with 11 minutes left.

Barkley then added another penalty late on to leave Newcastle needing to beat Exeter Chiefs on Sunday to have a realistic chance of progressing to the last four of the Anglo-Welsh Cup.

NEWCASTLE FALCONS: Tait; Fielden, Eves (Fitzpatrick 66), Tu’ipulotu, Bobo, Gopperth, Young; Golding (Shiells 62), Thompson (Vickers 53), Murray, Hudson, Swinson, M Wilson (van der Heijden 53), Welch, Hogg.