Despite picking a side with plenty of first team experience, including former France wing David Bory, scrum-half Andy Williams, Spencer Davey, Ryan Davis and hooker Pieter Dixon, Gloucester dominated throughout and earned a comfortable 37-7 victory.
Gloucester's platform was established by their forward pack who dominated the scrums and were punishing in their driving play to create five tries and the perfect start to the A League campaign.
The experience of lock Mark Cornwell, prop Terry Sigley and stand-off Duncan McRae was key as Gloucester turned an 11-0 half-time lead into an even more emphatic victory.
Their only try before the break came from flanker Will Matthews, who sealed a concerted move with an angled run to the posts after both Marcel Garvey and Olly Morgan had sustained the attack down the left.
Bath cut the deficit to only four points with a converted try from lock Mike Myerscough and a conversion from Davis but it only served to warm up the home-town pack.
A 50th minute penalty was driven to touch by McRae and Gloucester kept the pressure on through a series of powerful drives for breakaway James Merriman to go over for their second try.
The pressure was beginning to tell on Bath and with prop Jack Forster also getting heavily involved, Gloucester were awarded a penalty try after 62 minutes following a series of infringements close to the line that made the score 23-7.
With 12 minutes to go they grabbed their fourth try and it owed everything to McRae's experience and vision and the pace of Morgan and Garvey.
Morgan turned over possession close to the touchline and fed Garvey and he was alert enough to send skipper Luke Narraway hurtling into score to complete a trio of tries for the back row.
The final try was scored by Davies, who cut a lovely angle close to the posts to seal a comprehensive and fully deserved Gloucester win.
GLOUCESTER: Olly Morgan; James Bailey, Anthony Allen, Brad Davies, Marcel Garvey; Duncan McRae (Chris McNeil 70), Danny Pointon (Tom Maynard 63); Terry Sigley, James Parkes (Rob Elloway 45), Kevin Moran (Jack Forster 40), Jonathan Pendlbury, Mark Cornwell (Dan Touhy 70), Will Matthews (George Evans 44), James Merriman, Luke Narraway (c).
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