FIRST-TEAM coach Neal Hatley is adamant there will not a repeat of the ‘Battle of Kingsholm’ as Bath Rugby prepare to face local rivals Gloucester tomorrow (5.30pm).

Bath travel to the home of the Cherry and Whites for the first time since their infamous last meeting back in April, a match which ended in a mass brawl and Gloucester down to 11 players.

A George Ford penalty a minute from time handed Bath a 18-17 win that day and although Hatley expects another feisty affair as West Country bragging rights will be on the line, he has no doubts the players will keep their emotions in check.

“It was quite spiky last time,” forwards coach Hatley admitted.

“But I wouldn’t expect that to happen again. Everybody knows the importance of keeping 15 players on the field if you want to give yourself the best chance of winning the game.

“And in George and Greig Laidlaw there will be two unbelievably accurate goal kickers out there, so you know any indiscipline is going to get punished.

“First and foremost we love being involved in this fixture – it’s a proper rivalry.

“I think it’s brilliant and one of the things that attracted me to Bath was being involved in games like this.

“Kingsholm is an incredibly tough place to go. The crowd are immensely knowledgeable but they are also unbelievably partisan and that adds to the atmosphere.

“They are getting better and better each week under what is an unbelievably good coaching staff they’ve put together this year.

“We’d take any win going to Kingsholm but hopefully we can serve up a real good game for the supporters.”

The match marks the return to Aviva Premiership action after a two-week European break which saw both sides claim back-to-back wins.

Flankers Matt Garvey and Carl Fearns are in line to return to the Bath squad after missing last Friday’s 32-12 win at home to Montpellier in the Champions Cup.

England lock Dave Attwood may miss out, however, after being forced off early in that match.

Hatley added: “Matt and Carl both trained this week and we’d like to think they’d be in the mix for selection.

“Dave maybe isn’t at 100 per cent yet and although we’d love to have him involved as he’s a full international there’s not need to us to force it as we’ve got enough quality cover.”