The scrip, it seemed, was written. The sun was shining, Alex Brown was celebrating a record 82nd consecutive league appearance and the mayor of Gloucester opened the new stand, which takes Kingsholm's capacity to 13,000. Before the biggest ever crowd here, over 11,000, all it needed was for the Exiles to play the part of willing fall-guys.
The visitors, however, were not willing and produced a combative performance up front which meant that at half-time there was only a point in it, and apart from Bath being under the Newcastle cosh, little was going right for the home fans.
Irish had opened the scoring with a penalty from Barry Everitt after just three minutes, and added a beautifully worked try by Geoff Appleford five minutes later.
It came from an Irish line-out on halfway, where Kieran Roche dropped the ball off the top to the captain Ryan Strudwick. He drove forward to set up Everitt's pinpoint kick for the winger Scott Staniforth, who fed Appleford for the simplest of scores, converted by Everitt.
The heavens opened immediately, and a downpour did little to assist with handling the ball. Under the deluge, Gloucester fought back with a classic driven line-out, with the ball grounded by the hooker Olivier Azam, and Everitt responded with a penalty before the home side clawed their way back into contention after 24 minutes.
A cunning five-metre line-out move in which Azam threw long to James Forrester, rather than go for the virtually obligatory catch and drive, enabled the young No 8 to flip the ball to the captain Jake Boer, although unfortunately for Gloucester, he fell awkwardly and injured his knee.
After the break, slippery conditions and general rustiness prevented both teams from achieving continuity of any note, although Henry Paul's two penalties as Irish infringed at the breakdown enabled the home side to sneak into the lead approaching the hour, and reflected Gloucester's domination of territory.
A penalty from the Irish replacement fly-half Mark Mapletoft pulled his side back within two points in the final 10 minutes. That merely galvanised Gloucester, who produced their best spell, culminating in Andy Hazell's try after the substitute No 8 ran on to James Simpson-Daniel's pass wide on the right with three minutes remaining.
That effectively settled matters, but Irish could point to a knock-on in the build-up, missed by referee Dave Pearson, and claim they were robbed. In truth, they were denied by their own inability to keep their error count down. As for Gloucester, the new stand is substantial, but on the pitch the foundations look a little wobbly.
GLOUCESTER: Goodridge; Garvey, Fanolua, Paul, Simpson-Daniel; McRae, Gomarsall; Sigley (Wood 73), Azam (Fortey 58), Powell, Buxton, Brown, Balding (Eustace 70), Boer (capt), Forrester (Hazell 38).
LONDON IRISH: Armitage; Sackey, Appleford, Catt, Staniforth; Everitt (Mapletoft 70), Edwards (Hodgson 52); Hatley, Flavin (Russell 52), Hardwick, Strudwick (capt), Casey, Gustard (Kennedy 58), Dawson, Roche (Murphy ht).
Referee: D Pearson (N'humberland).
