Bath overpower Gloucester to regain six-point lead

Gallagher Premiership

Bath (28) 42

Pepper, Ojomoh, Du Toit, Russell, Stuart, and Underhill Cons: Russell 6.

Gloucester (26) 26

To regain their six-point lead at the top of the table, Bath defeated Gloucester 42-26 in a fiery West Country derby.

By half-time, both teams had already traded four tries, with Santi Carreras’ charged down conversion being the only difference between them on the scoreboard.

However, Will Stuart’s try 20 minutes from time gave Bath a lead over their opponents by nine points before his England team-mate Sam Underhill added his sixth to win the match.

Russell kicked to the corner, and Guy Pepper spun over under the posts as he spun out of three tacklers.

Carreras, who confirmed his transfer to his future club last month, collected a poor kick and found space past two defenders to feed George Barton, who immediately retaliated on the counter. Before teeing up Jack Clement to run into the corner, the full-back scurried deep into Bath’s half.

After five minutes, a scrum penalty gave Bath another put in, and on the third play, Russell sent a perfectly timed pass around the back under a tackle for Max Ojomoh to open a gap and score.

Six minutes later, Du Toit scored the hosts with a third try after another Bath line-out after a penalty, and Gloucester was pelted and under pressure.

However, Gloucester rallied, firstly through Williams, despite Carreras’ unanticipated conversion from right in front of the posts by Will Muir, who had already given them two more points.

This season, the Cherry and Whites’ attack has struggled, and their third came in at the right time.

Five minutes before half-time, Russell scored a quick tap-and-go to give Bath their bonus point.

However, Bath number eight Alfie Barbeary kicked it at half-time, only to give the visitors a line-out as a result. Carreras eventually cut the gap to two by picking out Barton in space out wide.

After conceding six tries in the second half, Gloucester’s director of rugby, George Skivington, claimed his side have learned “huge lessons” from the reverse game in October. They are now more balanced.

Although they were initially pinned into their own half, the Bath tide was coming at them.

The 14-men prevented Bath’s forwards from slipping over after Christian Wade was shown yellow for being off his feet in a ruck.

Bath was immediately sent to Gloucester’s line by a spectacular Russell 50-22 from the outside of his boot, but this time the Cherry and Whites held up.

The replacements’ replacements made the desired impact on the third Bath opportunity, but the dam finally burst.

Johann van Graan, the head of rugby at Bath, stated to BBC Radio Bristol:

Five points, I’m very satisfied. We had a great start to the game, scoring three times in the first 25 minutes. We entered the corner, but sadly we were shooed out, and with three more positives, Glos scored and reclaimed the lead.

We scored once more for our bonus-point conversion, but just before halftime, some pressure was applied. At halftime, things were pretty tight.

We said we needed to control the broken field, which I thought we did fantastically in the second half, but it was very controlled from us in the changing room.

Rugby director for Gloucester, George Skivington, stated to BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

We did some excellent things in the first half, but we didn’t really need to fire any shots in the second half, they said. We were excellent at strangling, thanks to Bath. We had too many opportunities, which was inaccurate.

“It’s not by chance or flinging the ball around, you have to work really hard to play that way,” says one player. There is a lot to do because we didn’t quite get in the right places at certain crucial times and missed some opportunities.

The boys worked hard, and they threw everything out there, I said.

Replacements: Coetzee, Van Wyk, Vannett, Van Wyk, Stuart, Hill, Underhill, Schreuder, Butt, and Coetzee.

Gloucester: Barton, Wade, Harris, S. Atkinson, Llewellyn, Carreras, Williams, Knight, Blake, Fasogbon, Clarke, Thomas, Clement, Ludlow (c), Ackermann.

Replacements: Singleton, Rapava-Ruskin, Gotovtsev, Jordan, Taylor, Englefield, Atkinson, Hathaway, etc.

Christian Wade (52 mins) Sin bin