Bath had won on their last three league visits here, while Gloucester had lost their last three home matches. History is not often a factor in derbies but, here, it was as the home side’s early fire and fury was doused by a team that was Saracens-esque for the most part, patiently waiting for the moment when the opposition became weary, then striking.
It made for one of the more forgettable matches of the season, an afternoon when the weather saturated skill. The tension throughout was the most entertaining factor: within five minutes the two sets of forwards were squaring up to each other after the Bath prop Henry Thomas, who in the build-up said that his side intended to get their teeth in their opponents – an unfortunate choice of words after the Chris Ashton affair, – had been penalised for dropping a scrum.
Thomas was pushed in the face by Paddy McAllister, who was probably reminding him where his teeth were located, sparking a skirmish that the referee allowed to blow itself out. Thomas’s surprise at being penalised was nothing compared to the crowd’s astonishment when Greig Laidlaw missed the resulting 35-metre kick at goal, ending his 100% record this season.
The pitch was soggy after torrential rain and the scrum became a blancmange of resets and penalties as the front rows struggled to keep their footing. Gloucester applied most of the pressure in the opening half without threatening the Bath line; the Wales internationals James Hook and Ross Moriarty showed deft handling and passing skills, but for the most part the opening period was a confection of mistakes and mishaps.
Bath, who were missing 12 players through injury, barely mustered an attack, although they came close to opening the scoring after 21 minutes when George Ford, the only player to drop a goal in the Premiership this season, hit a post from 20 metres as he tried to add to his tally of three. It looked like being a pointless first half, in more ways than one, but when Thomas was again blown for taking down a scrum, Hook landed the penalty from the halfway line.
Gloucester took the three-point lead into the interval, Hook narrowly failing to double it with a kick from 53 metres after Elliott Stooke, appearing against his former club, barged his way into a breakdown from the side. It was an incident that summed up the game, heart trumping head, with few signs of composure amidst the frenzy.
Gloucester’s narrow defence gave Bath width on the outside but, whenever the wings did not stay out too far, the passing was not swift enough. The visitors, who lost their unbeaten record at Leicester in the previous round, were strangely passive, apart from Semesa Rokoduguni, although they roused themselves after the break when an attacking flurry yielded a Ford drop goal.
They were not level for long as Laidlaw found his range three minutes later following another breakdown penalty. The local rivalry was no excuse for some of the stupidity on display: Moriarty was one of the players of the opening month in the Premiership and here he again combined strength with skill but, when Leroy Houston fell on the ball on the floor, Moriarty, instead of staying on his feet, joined the No8 on the deck. Ford was a metre short with the penalty from halfway but Bath were becoming more assertive.
Ford failed to put enough height on a cross-kick that was fielded by Billy Burns but, when the Gloucester fly-half sliced his clearance, Bath used the position to start a series of attacks that culminated in Anthony Watson, who until then had effectively been part of the capacity crowd, stepping out of Burns’ tackle to reward Tom Homer’s midfield manoeuvring.
Gloucester had two quick opportunities to regain the lead when Dave Attwood’s tip tackle and then Thomas’s replacement Kane Palma-Newport’s lowering of a scrum presented them with penalties within Hook’s range and on the edge of Laidlaw’s. The latter volunteered himself but his kicks both fell short, finally demoralising the vocal home support.
Bath scented a kill when Ford weaved his way out of tackles to free Watson. The wing’s chip to the line was tracked by Homer, who forced the scrum-half Willi Heinz to concede a five-metre scrum. One ruck later, Kahn Fotuali’i spotted there was only one guard on the blindside of the ruck and, after Heinz was drawn in, Matt Banahan had no one to beat. Which could be said of visiting teams here now.
