GLOUCESTER finally ended their wait for a league win on Bath soil as Butch James suffered a nightmare at the Recreation Ground.

The South African fly-half, Bath's 18-point hero in their opening-day victory at Bristol, missed five kicks at goal and was charged down for Gloucester's second try.

Gloucester went into the match without a win on Bath soil since leagues began in 1987 - but an error-strewn performance from the hosts allowed their fierce rivals to put that record to bed.

Gloucester, beaten by Leicester on the opening weekend, were slicker and more cohesive than their opponents and deservedly claimed that first win at the Rec.

Gloucester made a flying start when Willie Walker dropped a goal from the 22-metre line inside the opening minute, before the fly-half - in the side for the dropped Ryan Lamb - missed a long-range penalty.

Bath punished his miss when they kicked a penalty to touch, Peter Short secured possession at the back of the line-out and put Jonny Fa'amatuainu through a gap. He was stopped, but managed to pop the ball up to returning skipper Michael Lipman to score.

Fly-half James missed the conversion - as he did two first-half penalties - as Bath failed to capitalise on a brief period of dominance.

And Gloucester took advantage when Walker slotted a penalty after Bath were penalised at the ruck - and despite losing James on 32 minutes, Gloucester increased their lead through another Walker penalty.

James Simpson-Daniel's tackle on Matt Banahan denied Bath a try early in the second half, before two more penalty misses by James took his missed points tally to 13 for the afternoon.

Gloucester soon made Bath pay, No 8 Luke Narraway picked up from the base of a scrum 30 metres out and ran through unopposed to score. Walker missed the conversion but the visitors now led 14-5.

And that became 21-5 when James was charged down by Walker just inside the 22 - and the Kiwi ran through to score next to the posts and convert his own try.

Bath were beaten by this stage - but then played some of their most fluent rugby of the match in the closing stages.

First they worked the ball wide from a line-out, with Joe Maddock being put through a gap to score out wide. Shaun Berne's conversion made it 21-12.

And then they added a third try when Nick Abendanon stepped past Mike Tindall and into space - and raced in to reduce the deficit even further, although Berne missed the conversion.

Bath sensed victory - but they had left it too late, and Short's knock-on in a wide position signalled the end of the contest and Gloucester's first ever league win at the Rec.

Bath: N Abendanon; J Maddock, T Cheeseman (S Berne 66), E Fuimaono, M Banahan (J Cuthbert 68); B James, M Claassens (S Bemand 66); D Flatman (D Barnes 52), L Mears (P Dixon 69), M Stevens (D Bell 69), J Harrison, P Short, S Hooper, M Lipman (capt), J Fa'amatuainu (J Scaysbrook 67).

Scorers: Tries - Lipman, Maddock, Abendanon. Con - Berne.

Gloucester: O Morgan (R Lamb 79); J Simpson-Daniel, M Watkins, M Tindall, L Vainikolo; W Walker, G Cooper (R Lawson 52); N Wood (D Young 63), O Azam (A Titterrell 75), C Nieto, W James (M Bortolami 52), A Brown, P Buxton, A Hazell (A Strokosch 79), L Narraway. Rep not used: M Foster.

Scorers: Tries - Narraway, Walker. Con - Walker. Pens - Walker (2). Drop goal - Walker.