A 20-8 Leicester victory away at Sale Sharks got the ball rolling in Round 6 last night in Salford but the real action gets started today.

The big match this afternoon sees Gloucester take on West Country rivals Bath in front of what is set to be a sell-out Kingsholm crowd.

The Cherry and Whites are missing some of their star backs but new signing from New Zealand Jimmy Cowan is on the bench and the strong back row trio of Qera, Kalamafoni and Morgan are all set to start for the home team.

Bath have confirmed that former Newcastle boss Gary Gold will take up the position of director of rugby at the club following the departure of Sir Ian McGeechan. Toby Booth, Mike Ford and Neal Hatley will join Gold as part of the new Bath coaching team as well.

Gold announced yesterday that he will take up a coaching post at Bath. He has chosen to bring in the former London Irish coaching duo of Toby Booth and Neal Hatley along with Mike Ford, who Gold has worked with at Newcastle.

As the Aviva Premiership draws nearer to a thrilling conclusion, we've predicted the results for this weekend's matches. Newcastle hosted Saracens last night and came away with one point, making the battle for Premiership survival even closer.

The Falcons will be hoping that Bath can do them a favour by beating Wasps this afternoon which will ensure Newcastle still have a chance of staying in the Premiership next season.

IRB Junior Player of the Year for 2011, George Ford, proved his incredible talent by kicking Leicester Tigers into the LV=Cup final as they narrowly beat Bath 17-16 at the Rec on Friday night.

Leicester, who didn't make the best of starts to their Aviva Premiership campaign, will be able to take some pressure off their shoulders in knowing they may have a simpler route to Heineken Cup qualification in the Anglo-Welsh Cup final where they will face Northampton or Scarlets.

Bath secured a bonus point victory over Worcester Warriors at the Rec with two tries coming from both Michael Claassens and Tom Biggs with Matt Banahan adding another. Worcester on the other hand could manage only two from Arscott and Benjamin. Simon Ward was on hand and caught up with Sam Vesty and Matt Banahan after the match.

The Franklin’s Gardens crowd ceased to cheer for large parts of the game but when they did there was certainly good reason to do so as a high quality Northampton performance in the first half consisted of three beautifully crafted tries that put the Saints in a 22-3 lead half time.

Gloucester looked strong throughout (SD photography)

Match Information: 
Location: Kingsholm, Gloucester
Teams: Gloucester Rugby and Bath Rugby
Form: Gloucester - Loss, Win, Loss / Bath - Win, Loss, Win
Date: 24/09/11 / 1500 BST



Gloucester will host local rivals, Bath, on Saturday. Bath will want to prove their potential after a range of summer signings in the off-season. Gloucester however will look to improve on a shaky start to the new season and prove to the Kingsholm faithful that they are capable of winning silverware this season. In this post I will analyse the game, squads and most importantly give the Scrum Five score prediction!