Premiership: Bath 30-13 Newcastle Falcons

Three first-half tries helped Bath consign bottom side Newcastle to a fourth consecutive Premiership defeat.

Semesa Rokoduguni followed his four tries last time out with another, with England's Joe Cokanasiga and Will Chudley scoring to give Bath a cushion.

Newcastle threatened a fightback when Nemani Nagusa went over from a maul in the corner 10 minutes after the break.

But Francois Louw crashed over from a close-range ruck to seal a bonus point and move Bath into the top half.

The visitors are now five points adrift at the bottom after relegation rivals Worcester picked up a try bonus in their loss at Harlequins.

Bath wing Rokoduguni was replaced at the interval, having had treatment for a knee problem during the first half.

Cokanasiga - who is yet to feature for England in this year's Six Nations - grounded Jonathan Joseph's grubber kick to help the hosts to a 14-point advantage at the midway point.

He also prevented Newcastle's Sinoti Sinoti from scoring a late consolation, doing enough to cause the Samoa international to lose control of the ball as he stumbled over the try-line.

Bath attack coach Girvan Dempsey told BBC Radio Bristol:

"There was ill-discipline and inaccuracy around the breakdown in terms of our execution of our basics - it just wasn't up to our standards.

"I'm happy with the result, in terms of it gives us that opportunity to progress up the table, but we know it's a massive challenge going up to Franklin's Gardens next weekend against Northampton. If we deliver that we're not going to get the result.

"It felt slow, it was stop-start and we didn't manage to control that."

Newcastle director of rugby Dean Richards told BBC Radio Newcastle:

"We had the chances to take something out of it.

"When you break it down and have a look how much time we spent in their 22, we probably spent more time in their 22 than they did in ours.

"Either they're scoring too easily or we're not taking our chances, and I think it's probably a bit of both."

Bath: Homer; Rokoduguni, Joseph, Roberts, Cokanasiga; Priestland, Chudley (co-capt); Catt, Dunn, Thomas, Attwood, Charteris (co-capt), Stooke, Louw, Mercer.

Replacements: Walker, Van Rooyen, Lahiff, Ewels, Grant, Green, Burns, McConnochie.

Newcastle: Hammersley; Kibirige, Harris, Bettencourt, Sinoti; Flood, Young; Lockwood, Cooper, Wilson, Green, Davidson, Welch (capt), Graham, Nagusa.

Replacements: Socino, Brocklebank, Payne, Witty, Hardie, Takulua, Connon, Stevenson.

Referee: JP Doyle.

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