Premiership: Bath 17-10 Gloucester - visitors fall to ninth league loss in a row

Tom de Glanville scored two tries as Bath recorded their seventh league win of the campaign against Gloucester

Gloucester fell to a record-breaking ninth consecutive Premiership defeat as they were beaten 17-10 by rivals Bath.

Ruan Ackermann and an Adam Hastings penalty gave the visitors a 10-5 half-time lead at the Rec, with Bath's score through Tom de Glanville.

Will Muir's try levelled things up and a second from De Glanville put Bath in control.

Victory sees Bath move up to third while Gloucester remain without a league win since 20 October.

After narrow losses to Northampton and Harlequins the talk from the Gloucester camp was that a win was not far away.

But having seen Bath overturn a first-half deficit to win 45-27 when the two sides met in November, the Cherry and Whites were again left to watch a similar story unfold.

Gloucester put the first points on the board in a cagey opening half, taking advantage of a poor line-out from Bath five metres out to win a penalty. Electing to tap-and-go, Ackermann took the pass and charged through the defensive line to touch down, with Hastings' conversion making it 7-0.

Bath were back at full strength, with Johann van Graan making 11 changes to the team that lost to Leicester on 31 December, in which a host of first-choice players were rested.

Yet Gloucester were mostly successful in neutralising Bath's attack in the first half as England head coach Steve Borthwick watched on.

Santiago Carreras knocked the ball on deep in his 22 to gift Bath territory and the scrum, from which Finn Russell eventually kicked to touch, but the hosts were held up when they did get the ball over the try-line.

Minutes later Van Graan's side had a second bite of the cherry, kicking to the opposite corner from another penalty, but were repelled again, losing the ball as they tried to move it wide through their backs.

The increasingly restless home fans urged Bath on as 30 minutes approached without anything on the board, until Muir and De Glanville combined down the left wing with the latter scoring in the corner.

Russell missed the conversion and almost instantly Gloucester won a penalty at the breakdown. Hastings pointed to the posts and kicked a 45-metre penalty to stretch the lead to five points at the break.

However, just as they did at Kingsholm in their last meeting, Gloucester had a disastrous start to the second half when scrum-half Caolan Englefield fumbled the ball through his legs, opening the door for Muir to chase his own kick down and cross the line, with Russell's conversion nudging Bath two points ahead.

The hosts ramped up the pressure but GJ van Velze saw a try scratched off for being held up and their pack was denied once again under the posts.

The Cherry and Whites' resistance was made harder when full-back Carreras was sent to the sin-bin for a deliberate knock-on, but for a third time their defence held Bath up over the line.

They were eventually undone by an intercept from Joe Cokanasiga while enjoying a rare second-half push forward, with Bath quickly sending the ball left and De Glanville skipping through a gap to score.

Gloucester had a big chance to level with three minutes to go but Hastings' pass was loose as they tried to find space on the wing and they were left to take away only a losing bonus point coupled with their worst ever run of results in the league.

Bath head of rugby Johann van Graan said:

"I think tonight's game was in the bigger scheme of things very important. We've got our attention now to Europe and then we are back in it against Bristol away.

"But whatever happens with that game which will be an incredibly tough game - we'll lose some of our international players. The fact that we won tonight will put us in the position come March, when we kick off against Sale, it will put us amongst the contenders.

"I think for all clubs it will be a very interesting seven weeks; how do you prepare, how do you give guys a break after this incredible run of games, are the Six Nations going to be kind to you in terms of injuries?

"We are right in it with the fact we won tonight. We're in a good position so hopefully February and March will be kind to us."

Gloucester director of rugby George Skivington told BBC Radio Gloucestershire:

"We managed that first half really well, went in with a lead and we didn't manage that first 15 in the second half very well.

"We overplayed and Bath took advantage of it and got the pressure and I think that's really where the only really poor part of the game was.

"We've been very focused the last five weeks on how we want to play and what we want to do and we've had snippets of it. The challenge this week was to come here, play a good pressure game and take the opportunities when they're on and I think we did that for the most part.

"That try they scored right from the start of the second half probably just put in a few lads' heads that we needed to chase it. Once we got back on track with what we were doing we looked really good again.

"It's gutting but the plan is starting to come together.

"The way we're managing the game the last couple of weeks is a big step up from the way we were managing the game a few months ago."

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-Robinson, Balmain, Jordan, Clement, Varney, Llewellyn, Evans.

Sin-bin: Santi Carreras (58 mins)

Referee: Christophe Ridley

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