Snubbed Wilson Shows Eddie What He's Missing

Snubbed Wilson Shows Eddie What He's Missing

- Neale Harvey

MARK Wilson climbed off his sick bed to bag the winning try for Newcastle at the end of a pulsating contest that will give the respective defence coaches nightmares for weeks.

Having seen an early 19-0 advantage evaporate when Bath roared back to lead by 13 points as a rollercoaster affair entered its closing stages, Chris Harris reduced the arrears before Wilson’s close-range plunge, converted by Joel Hodgson, lifted brave Falcons into second place.

Newcastle, hammered 58-5 on this ground a year ago, look a different beast now and additional tries from Sona Takulua, Rob Vickers and DTH van der Merwe proved too much to handle for a Bath side who betrayed a disturbingly soft underbelly.

Flanker Wilson, who starred on England’s summer tour but was omitted from this week’s training squad, said: “I’ve had bad guts all week and was feeling horrendous, so to get through 80 minutes was great and at the end I just finished off a lot of good work from the boys.

“Previously we’ve got to 60 minutes in games like these and crumbled but we showed a bit of character, dug deep and got a really good result.”

Harris’ knock-on halted Newcastle’s first attack but the visitors soon struck when Santiago Socino broke Elliott Stooke’s tackle before putting Takulua under the sticks.