Matías Alemanno at the double to steer Gloucester past battling Bath

The longest-standing derby in the Premiership produced a suitably old-fashioned contest, ultimately edged by Gloucester to condemn Bath to a fifth straight defeat of the season. It was not the kind of try-fest that we are becoming accustomed to – it was pretty scrappy, truth be told – but no less entertaining and confirmation that Johann van Graan has his work cut out to turn Bath’s fortunes around.

As has often been the case this season Bath fought their way back into the contest, having been down by 14 points, but their second-half recovery ultimately fell short to leave them still winless and propping up the table. Had Orlando Bailey not missed two conversions maybe they would have squeezed over the line but in truth their desperate lineout – giving up no less than seven – was far more costly. On the plus side Ollie Lawrence was exceptional on his debut, having made the move from crisis club Worcester, Joe Cokanasiga carried with real intent in a performance that will have pleased Eddie Jones, and there was plenty of commitment in a strong second-half showing. There is an absence of confidence among Van Graan’s players, however, that will only be fixed when they finally manage to secure victory.

That is a habit Gloucester have developed and this is a second narrow win of the season. They may have been denied at the death by Saracens last time out but showed composure to ensure they prevailed as Bath went through more than 20 phases at the end, with the man of the match, Ruan Ackermann, coming up with the key turnover for the visitors. Gloucester struggled under the high ball, were shown three yellow cards and this was nowhere near the kind of emphatic showing they produced when thumping Bath 64-0 towards the end of