When Jonny Wilkinson dropped the goal that won the World Cup in Sydney virtually the whole of England, and certainly the rugby heartland in the West Country, thought he was more popular than a pint of cold cider in the middle of the Sahara. Ten months on, and swapping Sydney's Telstra Stadium for the humbler surroundings of the Rec, Wilkinson dropped a goal that was not dissimilar to his golden moment Down Under and it was greeted in almost total silence.

When Jonny Wilkinson dropped the goal that won the World Cup in Sydney virtually the whole of England, and certainly the rugby heartland in the West Country, thought he was more popular than a pint of cold cider in the middle of the Sahara. Ten months on, and swapping Sydney's Telstra Stadium for the humbler surroundings of the Rec, Wilkinson dropped a goal that was not dissimilar to his golden moment Down Under and it was greeted in almost total silence.

The fact that the world's No 1 stand-off added another was the final indignity for Bath. At the time Newcastle were down to 13 men after the referee Steve Lander sent off the No 8 Phil Dowson and sent the wing Tom May to the sin-bin for fighting, although not each other.

As far as the home supporters were concerned this was about the best decision Lander had made all day, but it will be severely questioned by the Falcons. It all stemmed from a ruck at which Dowson and Andy Beattie engaged in a bit of pat-a-cake, the like of which you see at a thousand rucks and mauls. Then it developed into something slightly more serious, punches were exchanged, half a dozen players got involved and Dowson was shown the red and May the yellow card. The fact that not a single Bath player was deemed to have been involved made the decision all the more questionable.

The sour ending had Rob Andrew, Newcastle's director of rugby, leaping up and down on the touchline - "we think it was a case of mistaken identity. We believe that the touch judge got the wrong number, and we will deal with it," he said later - but nothing can detract from the sweetness of his side's victory here.

Newcastle, who had won only once on their previous nine visits, are excited about their prospects. They believe they have the best all-round squad since they won the title in 1998 and on this evidence you can see why. The return of Wilkinson, after an absence of eight months, gives them a tremendous boost but that alone doesn't come close to explaining their resounding victory.

Bath, beaten only once here in 19 games, were in serious trouble from the fourth minute when Wilkinson, with a lovely pick-up, sent Mike McCarthy galloping down the left flank. The flanker, at 6ft 4in and 17st, is a big lad and he made mincemeat of Beattie and Martyn Wood on his way to the line.

When Wilkinson added a simple penalty and then made a searing break, May sliced through the Bath midfield with alarming ease. Newcastle were 15 points to the good after 14 minutes and were never seriously threatened.

Bath's defence wasn't the only thing missing. Since last season, when they had a tremendous record in the Premiership, the club have released Brian Smith, the defence coach, along with Kevin Maggs, Mike Catt and Iain Balshaw. Another international, Olly Barkley, is seen as an understudy to Chris Malone and yesterday Barkley wasn't even on the bench. Malone, unfairly, has now become the villain of the piece here and he had quite enough to deal with without the Rec faithful getting on his back. In short Bath looked a mess. Newcastle, on the other hand, looked like they were at the Blaydon Races.

Although Bath scored a pushover try, through Steve Borthwick, scattering white jerseys as if they were ninepins, Newcastle went further ahead midway through the first half when the winger Michael Stephenson, without a great deal of room to move, simply ran down the left touchline and went through Mike Tindall and Joe Maddock. Tindall was shamefaced, Maddock crestfallen. The latter is from Canterbury and nobody in New Zealand misses tackles like that. As the sun turned to rain, Luke Gross, Newcastle's giant American lock forward, received a yellow card and Wilkinson lost the "1" from the back of his jersey.

The player now wearing 0 proceeded to drop a goal with his right foot (just as he had in the World Cup final) and his second, in injury time, was delivered with his left boot. In between, May rounded off a 60-yard surge with his second try, a score that earned his side a bonus point, and Brendon Daniel scored two tries for Bath on his home debut.

The second came from a break by Tindall when Newcastle were two men short and the England centre actually beat a half-hearted attempt at a tackle by Wilkinson. Otherwise the stand-off was as committed as ever and on two occasions was slow to get to his feet after bringing down opponents. He is his own worst enemy.

At half-time it was announced that a lucky spectator had won a jersey signed by Maddock. They didn't stipulate the colour of the shirt. Had it been worn by Stephenson Maddock would never have put pen to cotton.

Bath: J Maddock; A Crockett (R Fleck, 60), M Tindall, S Davey, B Daniel; C Malone, M Wood (N Walshe, 73); D Barnes, J Humphreys (capt, L Mears, 45), D Bell (M Stevens, 22), S Borthwick, D Grewcock, A Beattie, I Feaunati (G Delve, 73), M Lipman (J Scaysbrook, 55).

Newcastle: J Shaw (M Burke, 67); T May, J Noon, M Mayerhofler, M Stephenson; J Wilkinson (co-capt), J Grindal (H Charlton, 67); I Peel (co-capt, M Ward, 31), A Long (M Thompson, 55), M Hurter (Peel, 53), L Gross (C Hamilton, 60), S Grimes, M McCarthy (S Sititi, 60), P Dowson, C Charvis.

Referee: S Lander (Merseyside).