Neither of thse teams ever want for motivation whenever this fierce West Country rivals is played out.
However, Bath have much more than just pride to play for with a play-off spot still up for grabs.
For Gloucester, who include a couple of old Rec favourites in their ranks in Matt Banahan and Matt Garvey, that goal has slipped by for another season.
While the Cherry & Whites have been fabulously infuriating, Bath are starting to show the sort of consistency that still escapes their counterparts from up the M5.
And Bath know that nothing less than a win will do if they want to continue their quest to defy odds of 33/1 at the restart and claim their first-ever Premiership title.
Stuart Hooper’s side have only lost once since the season got up and running again – and that home defeat to Wasps should never have happened – with impressive away wins at Quins and Sale Sharks and a home romp against Worcester recorded since then,
Tries were once hard to come by for Bath but Girvan Dempsey is now, finally, starting to leave his Leinster imprint on the side from an attacking sense.
With Olly Thorley and Jonny May in their ranks, Gloucester aren’t short of firepower but Bath arguably have the best winger on current form in Ruaridh McConnochie. Joe Cokanasiga is waiting in the wings, too, after a long injury lay-off.
Bath’s pack should deliver a plentiful supply of ball and the 1,000 or so Bath fans allowed to attend should leave the ground smiling.
The joy of six
Get on the first half handicap for Bath of -6. Bath are one of only four teams to score more tries before the break than after it this season (27/26), while Gloucester have scored 99 first-half points and 119 in the second stanza. Just under two-thirds of their tries have come in the second 40, too.
In terms of tries conceded, this is also weighted in Bath’s favour in first half handicap terms.
Only 22 of the 52 tries Bath have let in have come before the oranges (or lemons if you’re being historically correct), while the Gloucester split is 26/25.
