It sticks in the craw at Kingsholm that Gloucester have not taken two trophies for their league “wins” of 2003 and 2007. Now they have the chance to make it third time lucky as they finished at the head of the Guinness Premiership on Saturday after a match of such intensity that you find it hard to believe that they can do it all over again on Sunday.

Bath produced such beautifully crafted rugby in the first half that even the hardened occupants of the Shed might have felt concerned for their team. Yet so tight was the Gloucester defence and so abrasive the work of their back row at the breakdown that Bath were denied no more than a long-range, dropped-goal attempt by Butch James in the second half, and that barely left the ground.

“We were expecting more control at the breakdown,” Steve Meehan, the Bath head coach, said, carefully. “And we didn’t get it.” He might have been talking about his players, but his comments applied more to Dave Pearson, the referee, for his interpretation that allowed Gloucester players to come through the heart of the ruck and slow down the quick ball on which Bath’s game has thrived all season.

Meehan spoke to the match officials at the interval about his concerns, but it is a truism in rugby that you play to the referee on the day and Gloucester built on an admirable set-piece game with the complementary skills of Alasdair Strokosch, Akapusi Qera and Gareth Delve, a Scot, a Fijian and a Welshman respectively. “We worked really hard this week [to combat Bath's offloading game],” Dean Ryan, their head coach, said. “The referee was outstanding. He let us compete.”

Scorers: Gloucester: Try: Simpson-Daniel (37min). Penalty goal: Lamb (20). Bath: Penalty goals: Barkley 2 (31, 40+1). Scoring sequence (Gloucester first): 3-0, 3-3, 8-3, 8-6 (half-time).

Gloucester: I Balshaw (rep: M Foster, 23-31); J Simpson-Daniel, M Tindall (rep: W Walker, 16), A Allen, L Vainikolo; R Lamb, R Lawson (rep: G Cooper, 73); N Wood (rep: A Dickinson, 48-73), A Titterrell (rep: O Azam, 48), C Nieto, M Bortolami, A Brown, A Strokosch, A Qera, G Delve (rep: L Narraway, 59).

Bath: J Maddock; A Higgins, T Cheeseman (rep: A Crockett, 68), O Barkley, M Banahan; A James, M Claassens; D Flatman, L Mears (rep: P Dixon, 61), M Stevens (rep: D Bell, 30), S Borthwick, D Grewcock (rep: P Short, 73), J Fa'amatuainu, M Lipman, D Browne (rep: C Goodman, 80+1).

Referee: D Pearson.
Attendance: 16,500.