The game took second place to marking openside Andy Hazell's testimonial, and the number seven gave a typically effective display at the break down, even if he could be found hanging out of rucks a little more often looking for a try to mark his and Bath's Lee Mears' big day.

Things became disjointed in the second half, as you would expect with substitutes coming on from everywhere.

But the game ticked quite a few boxes for the Cherry and Whites. Barring Nicky Robinson, all of the new names in the squad got a first chance on the hallowed turf.

Particularly impressive was new prop Paul Doran-Jones who refused to take a step backwards during his 40 minutes in the game.

He was replaced by Pierre Capdevielle, another who looked eager to get into the fray.

Dave Attwood, the former Bristol lock, also did little wrong and the line-out remained solid with Darren Dawidiuk, a second half replacement for Scott Lawson throwing in.

Tom Voyce had a shaky first game from full back, missing a couple of tackles and dropping some high balls, but pre-season is the time to make these errors.

Of the youngsters, all eyes were on Freddie Burns at fly-half and he showed signs of attacking excellence, sprinkled with a couple of defensive errors, but otherwise looked more than the part with Carlos Spencer outside him.

Jonny May, Hartpury's Twickenham hat-trick hero, was another to slot in well at outside centre.

Gloucester were out of the blocks quickest, going 10-0 up after a push over try from skipper Gareth Delve in the 13th minute, Spencer adding the extras to an earlier penalty.

Bath replied with a try of their own from Matt Carraro after a length of the field move started by a Voyce missed tackle on 38 minutes.

A Spencer penalty made it 13-7 at half time before an early Joe Maddock try reduced the deficit to a point, extended to four by the boot of the Kiwi, who missed nothing all afternoon.

Gloucester led 16-12 until the 69th minute, when Spencer slotted his final penalty. A minute later Bath struck back to level the scores and that was how it finished.


Gloucester: T Voyce; C Sharples, J May, C Spencer, L Vainikolo; F Burns, D Lewis; A Dickinson, S Lawson, P Doran-Jones, D Attwood, A Brown, P Buxton, A Hazell, G Delve (capt). Reps: D Dawidiuk (S Lawson 51), P Capdevielle (Doran-Jones 39), A Eustace (Attwood 51), D Williams (Delve 68), R Lawson (Lewis 40), M Tindall (Burns 40), J Simpson-Daniel (Vainikolo 51), N Wood (Dickinson 51), M Bortolami (Brown 51).

Bath: J Cuthbert; J Maddock, M Carraro, B Williams, R Crane; N Little, S Bemand; D Barnes, L Mears (capt), D Bell, S Hobson, D Grewcock, A Beattie, J Ovens, C Cracknell. Reps: R Hawkins (Mears 26), A Jarvis (Bell 40), S Hooper (Grewcock 40), B Skirving (Cracknell 40), M Baxter (Bemand 30), R Davis (Little 40), M Stevenson (Crane 40)), P Dixon (Hawkins 51), D Flatman (Barnes 40), J Salvi (Ovens 40), J Faamatuainu (Beattie 40), M Claassens (Baxter 51), S Hape (Williams 40), T Cheeseman (Carraro 40).

Written by Gareth Butler