Gloucester 6-15 Bath

image via David Rogers/Getty Images

Despite Anthony Watson and Matt Banahan tries giving Bath the win, the match itself was utter crap.

The performances from both Gloucester and Bath were awful for the whole 80 minutes from handling errors to repeat scrums and the odd thing was notwithstanding the scoreline, the Cherry and Whites were the better side for long periods of time.

I’m not going to beat around the bush; the first half at Kingsholm was shit. You could put this half into three camps.

The first camp is if you’re a Bath fan it was a terrible 40 minutes, nothing was working for the away side.

Meanwhile, Gloucester fans would be pretty pleased with how their team were dominating the game and with James Hook kicking the hosts in the lead with a 30-minute penalty. They should’ve really been six or nine points ahead, but Greg Laidlaw missed a five-minute penalty and Hook second penalty fell short with five minutes to go in the first half.

The third camp would be the neutrals and you were probably so bored by the poor play and scrumming your balls ache.

Half – Time – Gloucester 3 – 0 Bath

The second half picked up quite a bit with George Ford bring the visitors level with a 45-minute drop-goal, but Gloucester retook the lead three minutes later with a Laidlaw penalty.

After Ford missed the chance to draw Bath level once again, we finally got the first try of the game on 61 minutes and what a difference getting quick ball makes. After getting well shut out by the Cherry and Whites defence at the maul, Kahn Fotuali’i moved the ball quickly to Watson’s hands who slipped one tackle to score in the corner.

Ford missed the conversion, but the visitors now had a slender two-point lead and it looked like wasn’t going to last with Laidlaw having penalties on 65 and 68 minutes, but the Scotland scrum-half missed both kicks and it would be there last chance.

As Banahan touchdown for Bath’s second try with seven minutes from a five-metre scrum and with Ford adding the two extra points to take bragging rights for this West Country derby.

Gloucester – 6

Penalties – Hook, Laidlaw

Bath – 15

Tries – Watson, Banahan

Conversions – Ford

Drop – Goals – Ford