Before all the doom and gloom mongers jump on the critical bandwagon of this performance by Butch James, just bear in mind the old adage that form is temporary and class is permanent. Last week he kicked seven from seven! His all round game was poor, not just his place kicking, with his kicking from hand and decision making suffering and this placed his team constantly on the back foot both mentally and tactically. 

However let's not forget the Butch James performances we enjoyed throughout last season. I have no doubt that with a rest and an opportunity to reflect on what went wrong today we'll see our Number 10 step out stronger, fitter and ready to take our team to new heights.

When analysing the result, much will be made of the kicking display(sic) of Butch James, because the loss of 14 relatively easy points in a game divided by four is very frustrating and something a club chasing honours can ill afford. It would be too easy to make comment on the loss of a 85% kicker without recruiting a replacement of similar standard, but we are where we are and we have to make the best of the skills available. 

Bath never deserved to win this scrappy match as they were poor in too many areas and a similarly average Glawster side was able to take advantage of the home team's problems. It was more akin to the less-poor side winning the game, which was a stark contrast to the excellent game in the rain last season when both teams played at the top of their game.

Dean Ryan will be very happy with the result but, like Steve Meehan, he'll know there is plenty of work to do at Kingsholm if he is to maintain the form of recent seasons. Both sides spent much of the match playing a ridiculous form of aerial ping-pong which indicated that either they were too concerned with not making mistakes to play decisive rugby or the were devoid of ideas on how to best break down their opponents.

Glawster took a first minute lead from a straightforward Willie Walker drop goal, which was an early indicator that they'd try and take any scrap going just to get points on the board and they could have doubled their "haul" four minutes later, but Walker missed his penalty attempt. Glawster controlled the game for much of the first ten minutes but Bath took the lead with their first attack on the Glawster line through a Lipman try, following a drive from a penalty line-out on the edge of the Glawster red zone.

The first half closed with James and Walker trading two penalties apiece: with the Bath man missing 100% and Walker scoring 100%.

The second half started with similar chaotic play from the home side, demonstrated by a collision of Matt Stevens and Michael Claassens going for the same high Glawster clearance. Whether both players called for the ball, the outcome was a knock-on and embarrassed colleagues.

James carried on with his kicking problems by missing two more penalties and the score remained at 5-9 until Luke Narraway stole away from the base of a scrum on the edge of the Bath twenty-two, easily outpacing the Bath defenders.

A mass exchange of Bath players preceded the next Glawster score when the hapless James found his clearance kick charged down by try-scorer, Willie Walker.

At 5-21 down with fourteen minutes left, Bath suddenly upped their game and scored two superb tries to get within four points of the visitors. With the countdown clock almost at zero Bath picked up the ball from deep in their twenty-two and attempted to run up-field for the try that would snatch an unlikely win. A series of phases took them to half-way but their gallant attempt was snuffed out when Butch James gave an unconvincing pass which was dropped to bring about the final whistle. 

Enjoy your win Glaws, you deserved it because you took your chances, but you know that had we played throughout the match as we did in the final fifteen minutes the result would have been very different.

As for Butch James? Chin up mate, we all have a bad day at work and this was yours.

Referee: Wayne Barnes

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