Arundell scores four as Bath cruise past Newcastle
· Yahoo Sports
The Prem
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Bath (31) 69
Tries: Hill, Arundell 4, Redpath, Bayliss, Carreras 2, Frost, Harris Cons: Russell 7
Newcastle (0) 12
Tries: Hearle 2 Cons: Connon
Henry Arundell scored four tries as Bath ended a run of three consecutive defeats with a rampant 69-12 win at home to Newcastle Red Bulls to reaffirm second place in the Prem.
Victory seals a top four spot and closes the gap on league leaders Northampton to four points. It also opens up a six-point advantage over Leicester in third, who play Sale on Sunday and travel to the Recreation Ground in the final round in what could be a winner-takes-all game for a home semi-final.
Bath swiftly put five tries on the board before the break to make it 31-0 and added another six in the second half, including two for full-back Santiago Carreras in an afternoon of total domination.
Alex Hearle scored two tries to ensure Newcastle were not pointless on the scoreboard, but it was another heavy loss for the Red Bulls who have conceded 259 points in their past four Prem games alone.
After a trio of bruising losses on the road in the past three weeks at Northampton and Exeter in the league either side of the Champions Cup semi-final exit to Bordeaux, Bath returned to the Rec in no mood to hang around.
Ted Hill dabbed down in the corner for the opening try as Bath got in behind Newcastle's defence and had numbers on the overlap, and Arundell soon added their second, rolling back onto his feet from a tap-tackle as he sprinted clear and over.
Newcastle had a couple of moments in Bath's 22 but failed to capitalise in a lacklustre opening 40 minutes and were quickly staring down the barrel of a 15th Prem defeat in 16 games this season.
A loose pass when in possession all but gifted the ball to Arundell, who cantered clear for his second try and Bath did not let up.
Newcastle full-back Josh Hodge was chased back to his own tryline and, under pressure, his clearance only went as far as Finn Russell, who unleashed another wave of Bath attack from which Cameron Redpath dived over for their fourth.
From the restart, Bath regathered possession and Josh Bayliss skipped free of a tackle for their fifth, with the only blot on their half the loss of hooker Tom Dunn to a 20-minute red card for a head-on-head collision with opposite number George McGuigan.
Bath's 69 points was the highest total they have scored in the league this season [PA Media]Newcastle eventually had something to show for an improved spell with the ball after the break as their forward pack got them within a metre of the line and a long pass wide found Hearle in space.
But in a manic end-to-end five minutes Arundell clinched a hat-trick, as swift passing from a line-out carved open space for the winger.
Hearle retaliated for Newcastle, assisted by an Adam Brocklebank grubber kick on a loose Russell pass and Carreras scored Bath's seventh.
But when Newcastle number eight Fergus Lee-Warner was sent to the sin-bin for a high challenge, the floodgates opened in the final 10 minutes as Carreras, Dan Frost and Chris Harris all charged over to take Bath easily past 60 points.
Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol:
"I was very pleased. We started really well, it was a focus for us. I thought we managed the red card very well and we scored some fantastic tries through the 80 minutes.
"We held our bench back a little bit more because of the card and then just before 60 minutes when seven of them came on together that made a big difference. We put them away quite well, we didn't become loose, we tried one or two things in our 22 then we exited well but we applied pressure right through the 80.
"We've qualified with the semi-final with two rounds to play, so that's really pleasing."
Bath: Carreras; Cokanasiga, Harris, Redpath, Arundell; Russell, Spencer (c); Obano, Dunn, Du Toit; Hill, Ewels, Bayliss, Pepper, Reid.
Replacements: Frost, Van Wyk, Sela, Molony, Underhill, Carr-Smith, Ojomoh, Barbeary.
Red card: Dunn (38 mins)
Newcastle: Hodge; Obatoyinbo, Beeckmans, Arnold, Hearle; Connon, Benítez Cruz; Hancock, McGuigan (c), McCallum, Clarke, Hawkins, Scott, Christie, Lee-Warner.
Replacements: Fletcher, Clark, Brocklebank, Hodgson, Mafi, Elliott, Grayson, Wade.
Sin bin: Lee-Warner (67 mins)
Referee: Ian Tempest