'Anyone can beat anyone': Johann van Graan warns Prem leaders Bath

Bath boss Johann van Graan hailed his side’s consistency after seeing them secure top spot at Christmas for the second successive year with a 40-15 win over Newcastle at Kingston Park.

Newcastle scored twice in the opening eight minutes through Jamie Blamire and Freddie Lockwood during a breathless start to the game but Bath rallied to lead 21-15 at half-time before taking control in the second half to secure a fifth successive league win.

That saw Bath reclaim first place back off local rivals Bristol, who briefly took over at the Gallagher Premiership summit with a record-breaking 54-24 win at Leicester earlier on Saturday, and left head coach Van Graan delighted.

Van Graan, whose side are level on 34 points with Bristol after eight games, said: “It shows anyone can beat anyone on the day. With Bristol at the top, we said we’ll go for the win first, which we did and that takes us back to the top.

“We were top at Christmas last season, so from a consistency point of view for us as a group, we’ve done that two seasons in a row now.”

Both Bath and Newcastle were faced with challenging conditions at Kingston Park, where strong winds caused some issues.

Van Graan believes that his side “learned a lot” from the weather in the first half, helping them adapt after the break when tries from Charlie Ewels, Finn Russell and Sam Underhill added to first-half scores from Alfie Barbeary, Tom de Glanville and Will Stuart to secure a convincing win.

“We saw yesterday there was going to be wind, as we got closer we did our homework,” he said.

“We walked around before the game and most importantly you have to be adaptable and work on the go.

“We learned a lot first half, mostly against the wind and learned what to do on the opposite side of the pitch.

“We changed our kicking plan, we don’t normally kick long but in the second half we were kicking long because of the wind.”

Following a solid first-half display, the Falcons showcased some promising attacks after the break, but Bath defended well to deny them any addition to the scoreboard.

Defeat is Newcastle’s sixth of the season and they remain second-bottom in the table, and director of rugby Steve Diamond admitted the best team won.

He said: “I think we dragged them into a fight in the first half, they showed superiority five metres out from the line, they were physically bigger than us and we couldn’t withstand those pick and goes.

“Not really frustrated, I think we were just beaten by a better side on the night.”