Euan Murray sin-binned for Newcastle

Scotland forward Euan Murray was sent to the sin-bin as his Newcastle side suffered an 11-6 defeat to Bath in the LV= Cup at a packed Recreation Ground.

Murray was shown the yellow card for cynical offside offence metres from his own line. It was the prop's final outing before Scotland open their RBS Six Nations campaign against France in Paris on Saturday. And, although he will be disappointed with the sin-binning, Murray will be delighted to get some more competitive rugby under his belt before the clash in the Stade de France.

Bath's victory was founded on a strong second-half performance. The only try of the game came on the half-hour as Bath tighthead prop Aaron Jarvis finished off some impressive driving play from the home pack. But it was late in the game before Olly Barkley kicked two penalties to settle matters. Newcastle's points came from two successful kicks by Jimmy Gopperth in the first half.

Elsewhere in the LV= Cup, Saracens coach Mark McCall paid tribute to Matt Stevens after his first competitive rugby since his two-year drugs ban.

Former England prop Stevens came on in the 48th minute of Saracens' 37-7 victory over the Scarlets at Parc y Scarlets and McCall was delighted with his contribution.

"Matt scrummaged very well when he came on," said McCall, "and he is going to get better and better the more he plays and the more match fitness he gets.

"He's been out of rugby for a very long time so he is still learning our systems but he did well from a scrummaging point of view.

"But our whole scrum was good. We have got a young guy called Jared Saunders who did well for us. We might give Matt a go at tighthead next week (against Sale]."

Scarlets went into the match without 20 first-team players because of Wales calls and injury, while Saracens fielded a host of frontline players most notably Scotland flanker Kelly Brown.

The experience showed with Saracens trouncing the young Scarlets side by five tries to one.