By NICK POWELL
Bath…………………………………17
Tries: De Glanville 31, 62 Muir 41
Conversions: Russell 43
Gloucester………………………….10
Tries: Ackerman 7
Conversions: Hastings 8
Penalties: Hastings 34
Tom de Glanville’s brace earned Bath a third win in a row over rivals Gloucester, who lost a club record ninth Premiership game in a row.
Gloucester led at the break after Ruan Ackerman’s early try was topped up by Adam Hastings’s conversion and penalty, with Bath replying thanks to a sharp one-two involving Will Muir and scorer de Glanville.
Muir then chased down his own brilliant kick through to draw Bath level 55 seconds into the second-half, before Finn Russell’s conversion put the hosts in the lead.
De Glanville’s second extended the gap to seven, and his side rose to third in the table as they held off a late Gloucester push for an equaliser.
Aided by two faulty lineouts from the hosts, Gloucester first got themselves out of their territory and then won possession a few metres out after a classy kick through from Chris Harris had given Bath a throw on their five-metre line.
And it wasn’t long before the Cherry and Whites were in front. George McGuigan took a tapped free-kick before finding Zach Mercer, who cleverly offloaded to Ackerman to open the scoring.
Bath’s issues at the lineout were soon amended however, and having stabilised one aspect of their set piece they went on the attack for the other, with a scrum penalty helping them into Gloucester’s territory shortly after the 20-minute mark.
The chance was gone as Tom Dunn, whose dummy throw had gifted Gloucester the chance for their opening try, was held up, but the hosts continued to push.
Finn Russell and Bath’s star-studded backline repeatedly set up good attacking positions, and though more chances would go begging once the phases built up in the 22 de Glanville’s superb offload set Muir free 35 yards out, and the winger fed back inside to his full-back to get Bath on the board.
With the conversion going wide and Hastings knocking over a penalty almost straight after it was effectively a two-point try though, and Gloucester went down the tunnel with a five-point advantage at 10-5 ahead.
Bath had come back from 20-10 behind at the break to comfortably win the reverse fixture between these two sides, and any indication they would panic on this occasion was quashed inside a minute of the second period.
Muir punched forward 20 yards after receiving possession from a Caolon Englefield clearance kick, and two phases later was back on the ball before nutmegging Englefield with a grubber through and regaining it over the line to level the scores.
Russell successfully converted but Gloucester weren’t going to give up without a fight, displayed by their defence holding up Bath over the line three times in eight minutes as the hosts desperately looked to extend their lead.
Ultimately though, it was taking a huge effort to stay in the game from Gloucester. That was epitomised as their attack, now without Santi Carreras who had been sin-binned for a deliberate knock-on, failed to make progress on halfway while Bath opened up huge gaps after intercepting through Joe Cokanasiga.
De Glanville burst past a tired Harris to make it 17-10 and grab his second, and though Russell missed the conversion his side’s huge confidence was displayed by the fact they turned down a chance for an easy penalty kick in front of the posts, going into the corner in search of a fourth try.
The chance went begging though, and Gloucester were finally getting a second-half foothold as they chased an equaliser to end a run of eight consecutive Premiership defeats, equal to their worst run in the history of the league.
Their opportunity came as Jack Clement won a breakdown penalty 40 metres out and Hastings sent a kick to the corner, but the fly-half failed to find his backline as Gloucester finally went wide to extend their miserable run in the Premiership to a new record of losses.
BATH: De Glanville, Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Redpath, Muir, Russell, Spencer (c); Obano, Dunn, Stuart, Stooke, Ewels, Van Velze, Reid, Coetzee.
Replacements: Annett, Du Toit, Griffin, Roux, Barbeary, Carr-Smith, Harris, Cloete.
GLOUCESTER: Carreras, May, Harris, Atkinson, Thorley, Hastings, Englefield; Vivas, McGuigan, Gotovtsev, Clarke, Alemanno, Ackermann, Ludlow (c), Mercer.
Replacements: Blake, Ford-Robsinon, Balmain, Jordan, Clement, Varney, Llewellyn, Evans.
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