Warriors were well beaten by a powerful and well-organised Gloucester side in a disappointing Gallagher Premiership derby at Kingsholm.
Warriors conceded two tries in the first quarter and although they battled back bravely to trail by just a point by half-time it was one-way traffic for most of the second half as Gloucester ran in four tries.
Warriors responded with a try from Bryce Heem and 11 points from the boot of Duncan Weir who made it 19 consecutive successful and maintained his 100 per cent record of 12 penalties from 12 this season. Heem’s try was his 21st in the Premiership and made him Warriors’ all-time top try-scorer in the competition, one more than team-mate Josh Adams and former club favourite Miles Benjamin.
Warriors have won only once at Kingsholm in the Premiership – back in 2009 – and it looked like being a long afternoon for them from an early stage.
They did well to emerge from the first quarter only ten points down as Danny Cipriani missed seven points in kicks.
The fly-half shanked a kickable penalty and was then unable to convert tries from James Hanson and Charlie Sharples although his second kick hit a post.
Hooker Hanson crossed from a well-worked attack down the shortside from a lineout and Sharples was put in by a clever move involving Cipriani, Owen Williams and Jason Woodward whose angled run gave his wing an easy run-in.
At that stage the penalty count against Warriors stood at 5-0 but they showed tremendous resilience by turning that around and converting their own pressure into points.
Weir struck with his first kick at goal on 20 minutes and penalised Gloucester indiscipline twice more before the break as the hosts found themselves under pressure in defence.
But there was more to Weir’s game than place kicking. The Scotland international was creative in attack and along with scrum-half Michael Heaney he helped to neuter Gloucester’s attacking threat with some astute touch kicking.
Warriors had the chance to go in front early in the second half when Gloucester went off-side and Chris Pennell stepped up for one of his long range specials. His kick had the distance but not quite the direction and Gloucester breathed a sigh of relief.
Gloucester turned defence into attack and from a driving lineout left wing Ollie Thorley jinked through for a try that went unconverted with Billy Twelvetrees taking over the kicking duties.
The bonus point try soon followed when Gloucester won another lineout, and blindside flanker Freddie Clarke was driven over and this time Twelvetrees found the target.
Having lost momentum in the first half Gloucester were not going to make the same mistake and they used their driving maul to deadly effect to set up replacement hooker Jaco Visagie.
Warriors were disrupted by an injury to Matti Williams, which depleted their already stretched back row resources, and the sin-binning of Chris Pennell after a mid-air collision with Sharples.
Gloucester capitalised when Thorley went over for his second try but Warriors kept trying to play rugby and were rewarded when Heem powered over from close range and Weir added the conversion.
Warriors. 15 Chris Pennell (Shillcock 68), 14 Bryce Heem, 13 Francois Venter, 12 Ryan Mills, 11 Josh Adams, 10 Duncan Weir, 9 Michael Heaney (Arr 55), 1 Callum Black (Waller 55), 2 Jack Singleton (Annett 55), 3 Nick Schonert (Milasinovich 62), 4 Anton Bresler, 5 Pierce Phillips, 6 Ted Hill, 7 Matti Williams (Barry 50), 8 GJ van Velze (C) (Cox 41).
Replacements. 16 Niall Annett, 17 Ethan Waller, 18 Gareth Milasinovich, 19 Darren Barry, 20 Matt Cox, 21 Jonny Arr, 22 Jamie Shillcock, 23 Wynand Olivier.
Timeline
14m | Hanson try 5-0
18m | Sharples try 10-0
20m | Weir pen 10-3
29m | Weir pen 10-6
34m | Weir pen 10-9
47m | Thorley try 15-9
53m | Clarke try 20-9
54m | Twelvetrees con 22-9
58m | Visagie try 27-9
59m | Twelvetrees con 29-9
61m | Thorley try 34-9
62m | Twelvetrees con 36-9
65m | Heem try 36-14
66m | Weir con 36-16