ROB Andrew took a scarcely veiled swipe at the structure of the English season after his impressive Falcons swept aside Bath at Kingston Park yesterday.

"In the last three weeks we have looked like a team for the first time since late October," said the Director of Rugby.

"We had no home games for two months in among losing players to the Six Nations Championship, which makes a huge difference.

"We have had the chance to work with the same core of players for three weeks and they looked at ease with each other today. They looked organised and defended well, and whenever the backs were allowed quick ball by the referee they looked dangerous."

With the bonus point for scoring five tries, Newcastle stayed in the hunt for a top six place, which should earn them qualification for next season's Heineken European Cup.

"We had to get five points, anything less would have meant us losing ground," said Andrew, who was very happy with his half backs.

"Hall Charlton played very well. He gets the ball away well and he's going to be a very good player.

"We have a lot of decoy runners who pull defenders out of position, but Jonny Wilkinson's soft hands put people into holes and we scored some very good tries like that."

In fact, the first three tries all came from players bursting on to short passes from Wilkinson and they effectively killed Bath off after the visitors led 6-3 just before half-time.

Bath's attempts to match Wilkinson through the skills of former England full back Iain Balshaw backfired as he was given a lesson in the art of fly half play.

He also missed two drop goal attempts from close range in the first half and the visitors were never in it after the break, when they were without England lock Danny Grewcock because of a broken hand.

A swirling wind and a shower just after the start didn't help the flow of a scrappy first half in which Newcastle were against the elements.

They had slightly the worst of it territorially and twice trailed to penalties by Ollie Barkley.

The first was awarded when full back Liam Botham was trying to control a kick ahead by Bath and Epi Taione came from an offside position and took the ball off him.

After a good run by Inga Tuigamala Bath also fell offside and Wilkinson equalised.

But Bath went back in front after a brief fracas when they vigorously tried to ruck out Hugh Vyvyan, who was penalised for lying on the wrong side.

Inconsistent throwing in at the line-out by hooker Steve Brotherstone was a problem for Newcastle and when they twice kicked penalties to the corner they lost the ball at the second line-out.

But they won a scrum in the right corner after 39 minutes and centre Tom May took Wilkinson's pass and skipped past Mike Tindall's tackle to go under the posts. Wilkinson's conversion put them 10-9 ahead at the interval.

A line-out catch by Stuart Grimes was followed by a break from Tuigamala and when another penalty was kicked to the right corner Taione burst off the back of the line-out and Wilkinson sent Michael Stephenson through to the posts.

Next it was centre Jamie Noon's turn and Wilkinson's third conversion stretched the lead to 24-9.

The fourth try came six minutes from time when another Wilkinson pass almost put May over, only for the centre to slip. But the ball was moved left and a long Wilkinson pass put Botham in space and the full back turned it back inside for Taione to romp over.

Five minutes later Noon raced away from halfway and chipped ahead. Several players from both sides overran the ball but Tuigamala picked it up just short of the line and touched down for a simple try to complete the rout.

* Tim Stimpson last night relived the moment that kept alive Leicester's Heineken Cup dream, and admitted: ''It was a feeling of elation and relief.''

The former Newcastle and West Hartlepool full back struck with a monster penalty from well inside his own half to deny Llanelli semi-final glory at the City Ground in Nottingham.

Stimpson's strike, in the final minute of normal time, took Leicester into their second successive European final and left Llanelli crestfallen.

Tigers will become the first club in history to successfully defend the Heineken Cup if they defeat Munster at next month's Cardiff final.

But the 13-12 success was every bit as close as the scoreline suggested, and Leicester knew they had come agonisingly close to crashing out.

''The kick was just about in range. I thought it was over, but when it hit the bar I thought it would bounce back out rather than go over,'' said Stimpson.

''The feeling is one of elation and relief. We didn't play particularly well, and although we had to be patient and build the pressure, it started to get uncomfortable near the end.

''It was my decision to take the kick."