Five-try Bath dominate Gloucester to top Prem

The Prem

Bath (28) 38

Tries: De Glanville, Dunn, Lawrence, Richards (2) Cons: Russell (5) Pens: Russell

Gloucester (7) 17

Tries: Joseph, Thorley, Loader Cons: Byrne

Bath moved to the top of the Prem table with a dominant win over West Country rivals Gloucester at the Recreation Ground.

The home side called upon British and Irish Lions Finn Russell and Will Stuart for the first time this season, with talismanic fly-half Russell playing a key role in Tom de Glanville's early try.

Further first half-scores followed for Tom Dunn, Ollie Lawrence and Ewan Richards before Will Joseph finally got the visitors on the board.

Ben Loader scored to give Gloucester hope early in the second half following excellent work from Joseph before Richards added his second to snuff out any chance of a comeback.

Both teams came into the match with injury worries, with Gloucester particularly badly affected as 14 players including Jack Singleton, Lewis Ludlow and Arthur Clark remained unavailable.

Bath took advantage of that lost experience early on, De Glanville scoring the game's opening try.

Russell's tackle in midfield dislodged the ball, allowing Lawrence to kick ahead. Henry Arundell then outpaced two Gloucester defenders to the ball and offloaded to De Glanville who picked his spot to dot down.

Bath's second duly followed, with Dunn the beneficiary of a rolling maul in the Gloucester 22 which slowly but surely crept towards the Gloucester line.

The home team scented blood and scored their third soon afterwards.

Arundell eluded a tackler in midfield, kicked ahead and then regathered before offloading to Tom Carr-Smith.

The scrum-half failed to make the line, but Bath recycled and with the Gloucester defence still reeling, Lawrence snuck through to increase Bath's lead.

A fourth try appeared inevitable and when it came it was irresistible and had Russell's fingerprints all over it.

Following a Gloucester infringement, the fly-half instantly kicked ahead. Ross Byrne was unable to gather and Richards kicked through before regathering to slide over the line.

Gloucester restored a measure of pride through Joseph's inspired solo score as half-time beckoned, but it had been a chastening 40 minutes for the Cherry and Whites.

In a moment of madness, Russell kicked the ball while lying in the ruck following the restart and was yellow-carded, but Gloucester were unable to immediately capitalise, losing the ball at the following lineout.

With Bath's new attack coach, Martin Gleeson, watching on, the home side rang the changes but the new additions were unable to prevent a second Gloucester try.

For a simple set-piece move, a miss-pass found Ollie Thorley on the outside to stride over with Bath's 14 men overstretched.

A comeback looked like it might be on the cards when Loader scored in the corner following a burst from the electric Joseph, but further reinforcements including ex-Cherry and Whites Santi Carreras and Chris Harris turned the tide back in Bath's favour.

First, Russell settled the nerves with a short-range penalty before the hugely impressive Richards strode through following a break from Miles Reid as the Gloucester defence fragmented.

Bath thought they had a sixth try through Joe Cokanasiga, which was ruled out for an earlier knock on, but Gloucester suffered a greater blow when Seb Atkinson was forced off late on to add to George Skivington's already lengthy injury list.

The result leaves Gloucester in eighth, two points ahead of bottom-placed Newcastle Red Bulls.

Bath head coach Johann van Graan told BBC Radio Bristol:

"We're very happy with that, I thought our first 20 minutes were excellent. We were clinical, we kept on turning them around, we had control, we scored some fantastic tries.

"We were really positive tonight, unfortunate about the try just before half-time. The yellow card put us under pressure, but I thought our impact [players] at the end of the game did really well and we controlled the game for the 80 minutes."

Bath second-row Ewan Richards spoke to BBC Radio Bristol:

"I had to fill some big boots, [with] Quinn Roux missing, Charlie Ewels and Ted Hill also. I took my chance, I love being out here with the boys, it's special when it's at home and a derby day."

On scoring his second try, Richards said:

"I wasn't really expecting it, but I just ran hard, luckily the ball bounced, I kicked it through and I got on the end of it. It was Finn who did the hard work and me just running through the line."

Bath: De Glanville; Cokanasiga, Lawrence, Ojomoh, Arundell; Russell (c), Carr-Smith; Obano, Dunn, Stuart, Richards, Molony, Pepper, Underhill, Bayliss.

Replacements: Tuipulotu, van Wyk, du Toit, Reid, Barbeary, le Roux, Carreras, Harris.

Yellow card: Russell.

Gloucester: C. Atkinson; Loader, Joseph, S. Atkinson, Thorley; Byrne, Williams (c); Knight, Blake, Laulala, Jordan, Alemanno, Thomas, Venter, Basham.

Replacements: Innard, McArthur, Fasogbon, Bokenham, Mann, Taylor, Englefield, Edwards-Giraud.

Referee: Karl Dickson