Bath fight back for Falcons victory

Bath mounted a strong second-half performance to steal an 11-6 LV= Cup victory from Newcastle at a packed Recreation Ground.

The only try of the game came on the half-hour as Bath tighthead prop Aaron Jarvis finished off some impressive driving play from the home pack.

But it was late in the game before Olly Barkley kicked two penalties to settle matters. Newcastle's points came from two successful kicks by Jimmy Gopperth in the first half.

Exeter made it third time lucky against Leicester as they outscored the visitors by five tries to two to go top of Pool Four with a 35-10 victory at Sandy Park.

The home side had narrowly lost their two Premiership meetings against the Tigers but they had this game sewn-up by half time having scored four converted tries - through Chad Slade, Dave Ewers, Neil Clark and Haydn Thomas - without reply to secure the a bonus point.

Tigers' Dan Hipkiss and Boris Stankovich both crossed over after the break, either side of Ben Moon's effort, but could not mount a fight back.

Matt Stevens returned to competitive rugby for the first time since his two-year ban for drug taking as Saracens trounced a young Scarlets side by five tries to one in the 34-7 victory at Parc y Scarlets.

The former England prop Stevens came as a 48th minute replacement but by then his side had gone a long way to sealing victory. Despite this heavy defeat the Scarlets can still qualify for the semi-finals if they beat the Dragons next week.

Scarlets went into the match without 20 first-team players because of Wales calls and injury while Saracens fielded a host of frontline players most notably Scotland flanker Kelly Brown.