{"id":363521,"date":"2025-12-22T01:03:21","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T01:03:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/363521\/"},"modified":"2025-12-22T01:03:21","modified_gmt":"2025-12-22T01:03:21","slug":"dan-frost-freezes-out-newcastle-to-put-dominant-bath-back-on-top-of-prem-prem-rugby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/363521\/","title":{"rendered":"Dan Frost freezes out Newcastle to put dominant Bath back on top of Prem | Prem Rugby"},"content":{"rendered":"

Bath returned to the summit of the Prem, ruthlessly exposing the gulf between top and bottom at Kingston Park. Despite resting several front-liners, including Finn Russell, they ran in eight tries against Newcastle<\/a> to bounce back emphatically from last week\u2019s Champions Cup defeat in Toulon.<\/p>\n

They simply had too much firepower for Newcastle who were shut out for the last 53 minutes of the game.<\/p>\n

If there was a disparity between the starting lineups, the bench mis-match was colossal and Bath\u2019s head coach, Johann van Graan, rubbed it in by introducing all eight of his replacements in one fell swoop with 25 minutes to go.<\/p>\n

It was a shock and awe move with Sam Underhill, Ted Hill and Thomas du Toit emerging from the fog and Bath, leading 33-14 at the time, eased away with three more fine tries to reach their half-century.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve done seven before but it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve done all eight,\u201d said Van Graan. \u201cNewcastle have come back in a few games if you look at the previous few weeks and once we got 12 up, I knew that if we put them away then, that was the end of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no perfect science in it, but I thought it worked well on the day.<\/p>\n

Fifty points away from home, topping the league at Christmas, I would have taken that before the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Newcastle the wait for liftoff after the Red Bull takeover in the summer continues.<\/p>\n

Successive Challenge Cup victories in Europe hinted at a corner being turned but this was their 19th consecutive league defeat, stretching back to 29 November last year, and a bruisingly heavy one in their own backyard.<\/p>\n

They are no longer short of money but the business of buying in talent is not straightforward. The big movers at present, such as George Martin, are choosing more established top-end clubs.<\/p>\n

Another sellout crowd at Kingston Park demonstrated the enthusiasm for the revolution amongst the north-east public. When it begins to bear fruit, Newcastle are going to need a bigger ground.<\/p>\n

Bath players surround Dan Frost after his try for the champions. Photograph: Owen Humphreys\/PA<\/p>\n

And the sense is that they will get there in the end \u2013 it is inconceivable they won\u2019t with the backing they now enjoy \u2013 but it is proving not to be a case of simply waving a wand.<\/p>\n

Newcastle held the lead after half an hour with tries from flanker Ollie Leatherbarrow and No 8 Amanaki Mafi. But Bath had already flexed their forward muscle by then through two tries from hooker Dan Frost and once prop Archie Griffin had thundered his way over from close range to open up a 19-14 interval lead, Bath pulled away. Francois van Wyk secured an all-front-row bonus point three minutes after the break.<\/p>\n

Then, with Newcastle shorthanded by the loss of centre Sammy Arnold to the sin-bin for ball-killing. Will Butt crossed for Bath\u2019s fifth.<\/p>\n

The visitors\u2019 heavy mob, plus captain Ben Spencer, rumbled on and pushed the champions out of sight. Tom de Glanville went over in the corner with 13 minutes to go from a lovely pass by Spencer and two minutes later the England scrum-half finished off a flowing length-of-the-field breakout.<\/p>\n

It was the try of the game from an impressive Bath who added an eighth in the last minute through Hill.<\/p>\n

Quick GuideNewcastle 14-50 Bath: teams and scorersShow<\/p>\n

Newcastle Red Bulls: Grayson (Chamberlain 75); Spencer, Hearle, Arnold (Clark 71), Obatoyinbo; Connon, Benitez-Cruz; Brocklebank (Hancock 71), McGuigan (Fletcher 53), McCallum (Palframan 53), Usher, de Chaves (Baker 64), Leatherbarrow, Christie, Mafi (Gordon 53). Tries: Leatherbarrow, Mafi Cons: Connon 2.\u00a0Sin-bin: Arnold 53.<\/p>\n

Bath: De Glanville; Cokanasiga, Harris, Butt, Hennessey (Redpath 55); Carreras, Carr-Smith (Spencer 55); van Wyk (Obano 55), Frost (Dunn 55), Griffin (du Toit 55), Richards (Hill 55), Molony, Bayliss (Barbeary 55), Staddon (Underhill 55), Reid.\u00a0Tries: Frost 2, Griffin, Van Wyk, Butt, De Glanville, Spencer, Hill Cons: Carreras 5<\/p>\n

Referee: Hamish Smales. Attendance 10,210<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve got some world-class players within their squad and they\u2019ve got a quality bench. They were very clinical in the second half,\u201d said the Newcastle head coach, Alan Dickens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s certainly frustrating off the back of what we thought was a good first half.\u201d<\/p>\n

Entertainment is the name of the matchday experience at Newcastle under the new owners and the Christmas tunes were trotted out during breaks in play to keep morale up, but for all the seasonal spirit they remain pointless this season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Bath returned to the summit of the Prem, ruthlessly exposing the gulf between top and bottom at Kingston…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":363522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[64,63,760,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-363521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-rugby","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/363522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}