Whether Hercules would be eligible for Gloucester or Bath under the overseas player rule is questionable, but even he would have struggled to exist at Kingsholm yesterday, let alone have some kind of influence on proceedings. This was a contest of such intensity that all fond dreams of former players that they could still do a job were extinguished just by the act of watching and wincing. It was quite magnificent.

Gloucester top the table at the end of the regular season, they entertain Leicester a week today, while Wasps saw their own chances of a home semi-final slip away, and have to go to Bath. The two-point margin at half-time remained constant throughout the second half, and at any stage a Bath breakaway could have sneaked it.

Gloucester deserved it, just. They have pulled themselves together wonderfully well after their heavy defeat at the hands of Munster, and they had industrial diamonds scattered throughout their team, most notably in the dazzling James Simpson-Daniel out in the backs and the sensational Fiji flanker Akapusi Qera. With the ball in hand and in defence and on every blade of the field, he was monumental. Practically the only bad news lay in the disappearance of poor Mike Tindall in the first half with what could turn out to be a significant ankle injury.

The brutal nature of the defending of both sides meant that if you had a millisecond to make a choice of play then you were in the lap of luxury, and it was significant indeed that tough and clever footballers such as Simpson-Daniel and the outstanding Olly Barkley managed to thrive. Equally significant was the performance of a newly-physical and effective Iain Balshaw at full-back.

Bath were wonderful, too, though ultimately they retreated into their shells too much in the second half. They decided to switch to a kicking game on the understandable grounds that to pass the ball wide left you in danger of being smashed into the middle of next week. But they had shown some real attacking skills on the back of their perennially outstanding lineout, and in the end their kicking game was not quite good enough to set up positions from which either Barkley or Butch James could have dropped the winning goal.

It must also be said that Gloucester’s discipline in not conceding a single kickable penalty when under pressure in the second half was not the least impressive factor. Furthermore, at a time when even the IRB boneheads trying to ruin the game admit the real problem is refereeing failure, we had another major English match quite beautifully controlled by a major English referee. Thank god the IRB have been comprehensively defeated in their attempts to make a nonsense of the game. And if you doubt me, then watch a replay of real and titanic rugby as staged at Kingsholm yesterday, and contrast it with the quite dreadful, jacked-up rubbish beamed up from the Super 14 this weekend.

The key try came late in the first half. The move started when Lesley Vianikolo set up the ball, a long pass from Ryan Lamb and then a quite delightful pass from Qera sent Anthony Allen and Willi Walker away down the right. Simpson-Daniel cut up the Bath cover to score and although Lamb missed the conversion, this made it 8-3 to Gloucester. The first half until then had brought only a penalty each by Lamb and Barkley.

Both sides could have scored before half-time. Brilliant passes from Vianikolo and Balshaw sent Tindall towards the Bath line only for the cover defence to submerge him. Then later in the half remarkable handling and a decent step by Matt Stevens saw the giant Bath prop thundering towards the line, and it was only a desperate tackle by Simpson-Daniel which stopped the try.

Barkley brought Bath back to 8-6 behind with his second penalty, and then in the middle of the second half there was a moment of delight fading into profound frustration for Gloucester. Vainikolo made the type of run he was signed to make. He set off through defenders, barrelled his way towards the line and flipped up the most perfect pass for Luke Narraway, who crossed. Only the killjoys and farsighted realised immediately that Mr Pearson was 50 metres away awarding Bath a scrum after a Gloucester knock-on.

The tension squeezed the life out of the occasion as the climax approached. Any Gloucester tackle or turnover was greeted royally, and with less than three minutes left they gathered the ball and ran down the clock and that was that. Players went away to perform an inventory of their body parts, just to make sure most were still in place. They have a week to recover, and Leicester’s surprise at squeezing through will not diminish for one second their trepidation at their task next Sunday, and their respect for the home team. Yesterday was a day in which the losers won respect into the bargain.

Star man: Akapusi Qera (Gloucester)

Gloucester: I Balshaw; J Simpson-Daniel, M Tindall (W Walker 15min), A Allen, L Vainikolo; R Lamb, R Lawson (G Cooper 70min); N Wood (O Azam 48min), A Titterrell (A Dickinson 48min; N Wood 70min), C Nieto, M Bortolami (capt), A Brown, A Strokosch, G Delve (L Narraway 56min), A Qera

Bath:J Maddock; A Higgins, T Cheeseman (A Crockett 64min), O Barkley, M Banahan; B James, M Claassens; D Flatman, L Mears (P Dixon 57min), M Stevens (D Bell 29min), S Borthwick (capt), D Grewcock (P Short 70min), J Faamatuainu, D Browne, M Lipman

Scorers
Gloucester: Try: Simpson-Daniel; Pen: Lamb
Bath: Pens: Barkley (2)
Referee: D Pearson (RFU)
Attendance: 16,500