Johann van Graan said his side produced a "real professional performance" as they dominated Newcastle Falcons to secure a 40-15 away win in Saturday

Last season, a win at Kingston Park against Newcastle was almost guaranteed, but that has not been the case under director of rough Steve Diamond, and the Falcons have made some serious strides to become competitive again this campaign, which has seen them claim scalps over Exeter Chiefs and, memorably, Saracens last time out at home in Premiership.

However, there was to be no third home win on the bounce as Bath came away from their trip from the blustery north east with a dominant display, particularly in the second half as the van Graan's side moved back to the top of the table.

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It was a lively first half as Bath outscored Newcastle three tries to two, with Alfie Barbeary, Tom de Glanville, and Will Stuart scoring for the visitors, while Jaime Blamire and Freddie Lockwood for the hosts. After a tight first 40, Bath showed their power and skill, scoring three further tries as Charlie Ewels, Finn Russell, and Sam Underhill gave Bath a dominant win to return back to the top of the league.

Speaking post-match, Johann van Graan said, "One of our targets for the week was to be top of Christmas again, so from a consistency point of view, I am proud of the group that we've done in two seasons in a row now."

"The Premiership just shows this year that anybody can beat anybody on the day, so with Bristol winning away, it was important for us to remain at the top and to get the win."

Bristol remain second in the table having beaten Leicester Tigers 54-24 at Welford Road in one of the performances of the season.

Having stunned both Exeter and Saracens in their previous two games at home, Johann van Graan was not taking any chances with his selection going into this potential banana skin of a game. He said: "We learned a lot out of Newcastle's wins here, where certain teams fell down, in our view. So, yeah, we came with a specific plan, and it paid off.

"It was a real professional performance, and I thought Ben (Spencer) and Finn (Russell) really handled the wind very well. We learned a lot in the first half when we were mostly against the wind. We learned what to do on the right-hand side of the pitch, and we learned what to do on the other side of the pitch.

"We changed our kicking plan as we don't normally kick long, but in the second half, we kept kicking long because of the wind."

"I also thought we showed dominance from our forwards well, who carried in close compact well, as well as from the maul, which went well today."

Bath's Premiership record has been sublime, winning seven out of eight games, but saw them lose two narrow matches in the Champions Cup to La Rochelle and Benetton.

"We know that out of their performances over the last few weeks at home you've got to win the big moments, and I thought we won those tonight, and two things stood out tonight: the Will Stuart try before halftime time and the try on eighty minutes."

Bath's monster winter schedule only gets tougher with matches against the rest of the top four from last season, with two heavyweight clashes in Europe sandwiched in between.

"We've now got Saracens, Northampton, Clemont, Leinster, Sale, and then the three Prim Cup games. So we're still going to use our squad. But look, we've planned way in advance. So, we'll adapt each week accordingly and just stick to our plan."

"We will tinker small bits week by week, but we made multiple changes last week. So we'll make a few small ones in the weeks to come."

Bath have an eight-day turnaround before they face Saracens at the Rec on Sunday, December 28, but with Christmas Day in the middle of week, training again will be limited.

"We are on Monday, and it's a normal Monday, followed by an early training session on Tuesday. It's very important for me that players and staff get to their families, so we'll finish at one o'clock on Tuesday, and the next time we see each other, it's Friday morning.