Gloucester catch Bath cold
Gloucester secured bragging rights over a lacklustre Bath as they eased to an 18-3 victory over their local rivals at The Rec.
Last Updated: 01/10/10 10:35pm
Gloucester secured bragging rights over a lacklustre Bath as they eased to a comfortable 18-3 victory over their local rivals at The Rec.
Left wing Lesley Vainikolo grabbed a try and fly-half Nicky Robinson scored a total of 13 points in front of an understandably subdued Friday night crowd.
Bath enjoyed plenty of possession after falling behind due to a whirlwind start from Gloucester, but indiscipline and a string of handling errors prevented them from mounting a comeback.
The hosts' only points came from the boot of Olly Barkley as Gloucester, who had previously held just one Premiership victory at Bath, were never realistically threatened as the second half fizzled out.
After a slightly tentative opening from both sides, the visitors squandered a chance to open the scoring when Bath were penalised for collapsing the scrum and Robinson's resulting kick fell well short.
Deadlock
But Gloucester did break the deadlock when they picked up a loose ball after a handling error from Matthew Carraro and the ball was spun out to powerful wing Vainikolo, who crashed over in the corner.
Robinson slotted a difficult conversion through the posts but curled a penalty into the upright with 13 minutes gone, as Bath escaped punishment for being offside.
The hosts then enjoyed their first spell of pressure but could not find a way through the Gloucester defence and it was soon the away side who were surging forward again, with Robinson making it 10-0 after Bath were pinged for hands in the ruck.
Bath centre Barkley nailed a penalty of his own, but Gloucester soon moved even further ahead when Robinson's neat kick was collected by Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu.
The Samoan then showed great awareness to scoop the ball to Vainikolo, who played in the onrushing Robinson for the score. The Welsh stand-off failed to convert his own try.
Shortly after, Barkley scuffed a penalty attempt wide of the uprights and Robinson increased the advantage to 15 points as he sent over a three-pointer on the stroke of half-time after another offside decision went against Bath.
Boost
At the start of the second half, the home side's comeback chances were given a double boost when Robinson went off injured and lock Jim Hamilton was sent to the sin bin for deliberately kicking the ball out of the hands of scrum-half Michael Claassens.
Bath initially used the one-man advantage to good effect as they bore down on the Gloucester try-line, but they could not add the finishing touch and the visitors escaped the pressure.
When the numbers were evened up again shortly after the 50-minute mark, Bath had failed to reduce the deficit and hopes of a fightback seemed all but lost.
Freddie Burns, who was introduced to the game as Robinson's replacement, caught the opposing defence off-guard with a drop-goal attempt but his kick drifted to the left of the posts.
There were further injury troubles for Gloucester as Fuimaono-Sapolu and hooker Olivier Azam limped off the field, but Bath still could not capitalise as indiscipline in the scrum cost them metres from their opponents' try-line.
The hosts continued to enjoy the majority of the possession as the clock wound down but could do nothing except add to their multitude of knock-ons.