Cameron Hutchison returns for Newcastle

The Falcons have won their last two at home in the Premiership and welcome back hooker Jamie Blamire for the 5.30pm kick-off, which will see Newcastle’s biggest home crowd of the season.

Centre Cameron Hutchison also returns having been part of the side which defeated Saracens on their last league outing, with Brett Connon back at fly-half.

Looking forward to the festive fixture, director of rugby Steve Diamond said: “I don’t need to motivate the players because we’ve been written off by everybody, and our mind-set is very clear.

“We’re not happy with how the past fortnight has gone in Europe. We allowed our standards to drop against Pau and the Dragons, and I include myself and the staff in that. We got our approach wrong but we’ve been forthright in how we’ve dealt with it, and everyone is buying in to the solution this weekend.

“We’ve come from a position last season whereby we weren’t able to win any games, to one where we can win when we’re 100% on it. Over the past fortnight we’ve just allowed that to drop off fractionally for whatever reason, and if we’re brutally honest we should have won both of our matches in Europe. It’s disappointing but we’ve learnt from it, and we’ll move back into the league with lots of intensity and focus throughout the group.”

Diamond added: “Everybody has got to buy into the system, and we’ve come a long way as a group when you consider how bad things were last season. We’ve won our last two home games in the league, we’ve won all three in the Prem Cup and we should have taken the last two European games. As I’ve said from day one the attitude among the lads and the staff is outstanding, but on the same note there has been a bit of tough love this week after what we’ve turned out in Europe.

“When we beat Exeter and Saracens up here in the league we went out there in fear of our lives, and that’s what we’ve got to be like against the top teams such as Bath. We didn’t have that mind-set against the Dragons and Pau, that real sense of desperation, but I absolutely promise you we’ll have it this weekend.”

With Saturday’s game falling on the winter solstice the teams can look forward to the shortest daylight of the year – not that Diamond is paying much attention to the weather.

“It’s due to be blowing a 50mph gale at kick-off but I don’t think that’ll worry Bath, because they’re the galacticos of rugby,” he said.

“They’ve got an endless budget by the looks of things, they hand pick the best players from everybody else’s squads – certainly the likes of us, anyway – and they’re a well-coached team with top internationals in every position. It could be a hard day at the office for us, but the only thing we can control is whether we turn up physically and mentally right for it. If we do that, then we’ve got a chance.

“I don’t care what Bath bring up here, because if we front up with our Triple-H mind-set and stick to our own plan we’ll be highly competitive. If Bath have an off day and we play out of our skins, then anything is possible, and with a big home crowd in it should be a great occasion.

“The knowledge and belief within our squad is really good, and if we can bring skill-set and attitude on top of that - you never know.”

Newcastle Falcons team v Bath Rugby (Saturday, 5.30pm, Kingston Park, live on Discovery+)

15 Ben Redshaw, 14 Adam Radwan, 13 Alex Hearle, 12 Cameron Hutchison, 11 Ben Stevenson, 10 Brett Connon, 9 Sam Stuart; 1 Murray McCallum, 2 Jamie Blamire, 3 Richard Palframan, 4 Sebastian de Chaves, 5 Kiran McDonald, 6 Freddie Lockwood, 7 Tom Gordon, 8 Callum Chick (captain).

Replacements: 16 Ollie Fletcher, 17 Callum Hancock, 18 Micky Rewcastle, 19 Philip van der Walt, 20 Ollie Leatherbarrow, 21 Hugh O’Sullivan, 22 Kieran Wilkinson, 23 Oli Spencer.

Not available for selection: Sammy Arnold, Eduardo Bello, Adam Brocklebank, Tim Cardall, Luan de Bruin, Ben Douglas, Ethan Grayson, John Hawkins, Isaac Keller, John Kelly, Cameron Neild, Elliott Obatoyinbo, Jacob Oliver, Pedro Rubiolo, Adam Scott, Marcus Tiffen.