It wasn't the most pulsating derby that has ever been waged, but it was meaty enough. For the record, Gloucester's unbeaten record ended rather tamely and Bath stepped out of the average into the encouraging.
Of perhaps greater note was the individual performance of Olly Barkley at outside half for the home team. It is fair to say that, whether playing 10 or 12, he did not set New Zealand and Australia alight last summer as an England tourist.
But just as a certain Jonny Wilkinson drew only strength from his first taste of international rugby - losing 76-0 in Brisbane - so Barkley seems to have grown. He was run over Down Under, but has reinflated himself.
He kicked well, he tackled vigorously and he generally gave fellow England tourists Michael Lipman and Mike Tindall something to run on to. The one was coming from his inside, from wing-forward, and the other was outside him, in the centre. It made for a neat triangle of forces. Barkley directed, Lipman harried and Tindall ran in for a brace of converted tries.
These may be early days, when nothing too momentous is shifting on the plates of the season, but these two went at each other with the cheery venom of time immemorial. If these yeomen of the West Country were engaged in a horseshoe mak ing contest they would go at each other hammer and tongs. Mind you, if they were making a horseshoe there would be hammer and tongs.
Anyway, before you could say 'engage' at the scrum, there was a dust-up between the front rows, which was nearly as predictable as the venerable Jonathan Humphreys calling a time-out for a contact-lens replacement. For decades he put in his tackles and his lenses at the Arms Park for Cardiff and Wales; now he is doing both for Bath.
Just one more thing on antics at the set piece. When scrums go down now, wing-forwards stand up - if you see what I mean - and gesticulate expertly on points of law to the referees. 'What about the pulling?' says one. 'What about the turning in?' says the other. Such expertise, like footballers claiming a throw-in, and based on anything bar knowledge.
The irritability of the front-rows was a variation on the lust for contact all over. The new pattern of players rushing up to tackle was soon apparent. If there is a way to avoid having your sternum entwined around your spine, it seems to be by ducking. I have noticed it lately. Little players duck and then dart. Martyn Wood managed it twice here.
James Simpson-Daniel is one who glides out of danger, but when Robbie Fleck left an elbow hanging out for him, he might have felt the benefit of the slightly less elegant instinct to lower yourself. Fleck went off to the bin, the first of three - Olivier Azam and Rob Fidler being the other two to follow later after they were shown the yellow card. Nothing serious; it is all part of the show in these parts.
All the up-rushing tackling left the game bruised and evenly poised until the half-hour. Then Barkley short-circuited the tacklers by blasting the ball by foot up in the air. Jon Goodridge missed the catch under pressure from Tindall. Duncan McRae then missed the bobble under pressure from Tindall. And Tindall finished off all that pressure-cooking by scoring.
Ten points adrift at half time, Gloucester managed to claw back three thanks to a cool drop goal by McRae. But their forwards were generally out of sorts, ill at ease at the scrum and disjointed at the line-out.
Before too long, they were falling out of contention as Barkley stroked over two more penalties. And almost completely out of the picture when Tindall ran on to a flat pass from the combative Wood, to cut clean through. That should have been comprehensively that.
But Bath slackened off, a trait that will have irritated their Australian duo at the coaching helm, John Connolly and Michael Foley. When the season brews up, they will not want to see their well-drilled charges suddenly growing sloppy at the breakdown, careless at the first spot of driving rain.
Still, these are not the days of heady brew yet. Bath trailed off and Gloucester managed a try. McRae stabbed a kick through and Goodridge raced behind the defence - it is the weak spot of the up-rushing line - to score.
There were another couple of scares for the home side as the visitors belatedly rediscovered their ability to win and hang on to the ball. It was all a bit late. Even with Fidler - Gloucester old boy, but now in blue - in the bin, Bath held on.
It may not mean much, but if you are in the business of winning the contest to see who makes the better horse-shoe, you may as well throw it to see who will have the better luck this season.
BATH : Best; Higgins, Fleck, Tindall, Daniel; Barkley, Wood (Walshe 72); Barnes (Stevens 34), Humphreys (capt; Hawkins 67), Bell (Barnes 69), Borthwick, Grewcock (Fidler 69), Beattie (Delve 79), Lipman, Fea'unati.
GLOUCESTER : Goodridge; Garvey, Fanolua, Paul, Simpson-Daniel; McRae, Gomarsall; Sigley (Bezuidenhout 45), Fortey (Azam 45), Powell, Eustace (Forrester 62), Brown, Buxton, Boer (capt), Balding.
Referee: D Pearson.
