Aviva Premiership: Bath defence holds as second-place club beat rivals Gloucester

Bath's George Ford celebrates his team's win in Kingsholm

George Ford kicked 24 points as Bath put themselves in second place in the Aviva Premiership, four points ahead of Exeter Chiefs in third, after a 39-16 victory away to rivals Gloucester on Saturday.

Ford landed six penalties to go with three conversions as Bath claimed their heaviest Premiership win at Kingsholm.

Gloucester could only manage three penalties from scrum-half Greig Laidlaw's boot and a try from Dan Robson, converted by Welsh fly-half James Hook, in the loss.

Big league signing Sam Burgess did not start the game, occupying one of the bench positions when the game kicked off, but he did make an appearance in place of England wing Semesa Rokoduguni in the second half.

Gloucester dominated the opening quarter but only had six points to show for it. Once Bath grew into the game, Ford began to influence proceedings with his metronomic kicking as he edged the game away from the hosts.

England winger Matt Banahan was the first to get close to scoring but was tackled short of the line, having made a play for the left corner.

Laidlaw and centre Billy Twelvetrees both missed attempts at goal, with the Scottish scrum-half eventually landing a third goal to punish David Wilson for his set-piece infringement.

However, it was not enough to edge Gloucester ahead as Ford had kicked five penalties by the half-time whistle.

Enterprising

Gloucester once again started the half in enterprising fashion, but the Bath defence held firm to clear any opportunities.

Replacement loose-head prop Nick Wood took a scrum down on his own 22, giving Ford a chance to make it six penalties, which meant that his opponents were nine points adrift of Bath.

Replacement tight-head prop Sila Puafisi then received a yellow card, which gave his team very little chance of staging a comeback.

When Bath formed an attacking maul and Gloucester subsequently pulled it down, referee Greg Garner awarded a penalty try which Ford dutifully converted.

Bath once again proved themselves as a tremendous defensive force as a renewed Gloucester team handed wave after wave of attack to their visitors, but again could not breach the line.

When Garvey crossed the line for Bath's second try, the game was put out of reach of the hosts.

Gloucester did finally manage to score a try through Robson who ran in from the 22-metre line - a score converted by Hook - but meagre hopes were further dashed when Garvey dotted down for his second try of the match to seal the 39-16 win.