Dean Richards wants Newcastle Falcons to seek revenge against Bath

Newcastle Falcons rugby director Dean Richards wants his team to settle scores against Bath when they take on each other in the Aviva Premiership clash at Kingston Park on Friday.

The last time these two teams met was in September at Recreation Ground when Bath inflicted a 58-5 defeat on the Falcons. The game also saw yellow card to Vereniki Goneva in the 29th minute which Bath capitalised and amassed two tries in the next six minutes.

Lamenting on the decision on Goneva, Richards believes Falcons "have got a point to prove" in the Friday's clash.

"You look at the Bath away game, and we were harshly done by a yellow card to Niki Goneva, which I thought was a really poor decision on the day. As a consequence, we leaked three or four tries at the end of the first half, and that killed the game in the sense we were so far behind we were chasing it and leaving ourselves open.

"Yeah, we have got a point to prove, but it is all about ourselves and our ability to produce the game we want to produce.

"That game is behind us now, and it's not about retribution. It wasn't Bath who sent Niki Goneva to the sin-bin, it was someone else, and we have just got to go about our game in making sure we are on top of it. If we are, we will come away with the result."

An improved performance from Newcastle Falcons this season saw them register five victories and are currently placed eighth and a win on Friday will take them to the sixth position in the table and Richards is pleased with the team's performance.

"It's a very happy camp at the moment," Richards added.

"To be fair, it always has been, but during the past two or three years the boys have been looking down or over their shoulders at what has been happening at the bottom of the table.

"I've personally never had that fear that we would finish bottom, but it's how far up the ladder we finish.

"This season, we are starting to make headway up the league. The boys are very much enjoying their rugby and it is starting to come together.

"In the first five or six league games this season we struggled a little bit to get into the groove, but we are there now."

Newcastle Falcons have made three changes to the line-up with Will Welch returning back to captain the side replacing Ally Hogg, who is ruled out with an injury while Evan Olmstead also returns to the side enabling Belisario Agulla shift to wing replacing Marcus Watson, who is out with a hamstring injury.

England international Anthony Watson is set to make a comeback for Bath while Taulupe Faletau, Dave Attwood, Kahn Fotuali'i and Charlie Ewels are unavailable for selection.

However, Richards is expecting a strong backlash from Todd Blackadder's men after their 11-17 defeat to Exeter Chiefs last weekend.

"Bath are an incredibly dangerous team, and you can't take your foot off the gas against them.

"They found it difficult last week against Exeter going down to 14 men, and as much as they will be upset by that defeat, they will understand there is a reason and a rationale behind it.

"They will obviously want to come up here and turn it around, but we also have a point to prove after not getting the result we wanted against Wasps last week."