Gloucester and Saint-Andre pay for caution

A rugby coach needs to be so many things to so many people – an employer, a friend, an accuser, a defender, a Samaritan, a philosopher, a general, a nursemaid – that a good one leaves the common or garden Renaissance man looking miserably one-dimensional. At the weekend, Philippe Saint-André found himself playing the psychoanalyst, in addition to a dozen other roles, and ended up making an informed decision that changed the course of the match. A glance at the scoreline confirms the Frenchman is still some way off the pace set by Sigmund Freud.

Indeed, Saint-André might be accused of making rugby's ultimate Freudian slip. Forty-eight minutes into a hard and hugely competitive West Country derby, he withdrew Patrice Collazo from the Gloucester front row and introduced Trevor Woodman. No big deal on the face of it: like Dean Richards at Leicester and Brendan Venter at London Irish, Saint-André habitually indulges in a chop-and-change routine at the sharp end. What made this different was the fact that Collazo was busily engaged in dismantling the Bath scrummage, piece by mangled piece; in the period immediately before he left the field, he was by some distance the most influential forward on view.

"I know Collazo," Saint-André explained afterwards. "He is a wonderful prop but I understand his moods, and believe me, he was beginning to get frustrated. He was disappointed at some of the things Bath were getting away with at the set-piece – he had spoken about this to the referee at half-time – and I knew there might be trouble ahead. A red card would have been very damaging for us, so I decided to make the change. Woodman is a fine prop too, so it was the right thing to do."

Two issues here. Woodman is indeed a fine prop – the most explosive loose head in England on his day – but he is playing his way out of a fallow period and has yet to recapture the form that propelled him into Clive Woodward's Six Nations squad last season. Collazo's premature departure gave the Bath pack a breathing space they could hardly have anticipated as they contemplated the world from one of life's more uncomfortable vantage points, colourfully described by one of the Gloucester forwards. "We had 'em with their heads up their own arses," he said.

Secondly, it comes to something when a coach is rail-roaded into substituting his most effective player, simply because that player might lose his rag. Collazo is undeniably one of Saint-André's more inspired signings, but he will never offer full value for money if he forces his coach into pre-emptive action every time an opposition scrummage pulls a fast one. A single Test cap against Romania has long seemed scant reward for a loose head of such iron strength. Now we know why the man from Seyne-sur-Mer did not win more.

At the other end of the self-control scale is another foreign import: Michael Foley, the long-serving Wallaby hooker, who is precisely 12 days into his new job as Bath's assistant coach. Having witnessed a shambles of a performance at Wasps the previous weekend, Foley set about putting a few things straight in training. He reminded his charges – not least those forwards in the England élite squad – of their responsibilities to the club shirt, before focusing his attention on the enormous amount of fine detail that had been cast to the four winds at Loftus Road.

''That was Foley's performance out there," said Jon Callard, the head coach, as he savoured a victory that may have saved Bath's Premiership campaign from disintegration. "There is a touch of the Andy Robinsons about him: he brings an intensity and a ruthlessness to the preparation, and helps people find their competitive edge. Apart from anything else, it's nice to have a full-timer alongside me. This can be a lonely job. With both of us here all day, every day we can chew the fat and bounce ideas off each other. I'm sure this arrangement will work, and work well."

Robinson, now England's second-in-command, was present for Foley's Recreation Ground initiation, as was the backs coach, Brian Ashton. Of the two observers, Robinson was the happier by a distance. Danny Grewcock turned in his most complete performance of the campaign – quite possibly, his best Premiership display since visiting The Rec with Saracens at the start of last season and tearing Bath to shreds – while two other full England caps, Steve Borthwick and Mark Regan, played at something approaching Test pitch. And if Foley has a touch of the Robbo about him, young James Scaysbrook is a dead ringer. The teenage flanker suffered a heavy knock in the opening exchanges, but still managed to go blow-for-blow with Andy Hazell and Jake Boer at ruck and maul.

Ashton, meanwhile, must mourn the decline of Iain Balshaw, who is trying everything he knows to work through the first dark depression of his short career, but shows few signs of emerging into the clear light of day. As recently as last April, Balshaw bordered on the lethal every time he went within hollering distance of the ball. At the weekend, he possessed all the dash and devil of a damp stick of celery.

There again, few players looked capable of cracking the try-scoring code. For Bath, Mike Tindall might well have scored but for a wonderful tackle from Henry Paul, while Tom Voyce almost slipped clear following decisive approach work from Borthwick, Scaysbrook and Andy Long. For Gloucester, both Paul and Diego Albanese failed to maximise fleeting opportunities in the home 22. These moments apart, the match was largely about the left boots of Matthew Perry and Ludovic Mercier.

Bath prevailed because, like the grand vintages of old, they summoned the strength of character to attack the game in their opponents' perceived area of strength: Borthwick and Grewcock pilfered 11 Gloucester line-outs and fought tooth and nail to deny the Cherry and White pack even the slightest momentum. "It wasn't pretty, but there are times in rugby when you win any way you can," said Callard. No great psychological insights there. Just common sense.

Scorers: Bath: Penalties: Perry 3; Drop goal Balshaw. Gloucester: Penalty: Mercier; Drop goal Mercier 2.

Bath: M Perry; I Balshaw, M Tindall, K Maggs, T Voyce; M Catt (capt), G Cooper; D Barnes, M Regan (A Long, 64), J Mallett, S Borthwick, D Grewcock, J Scaysbrook, G Thomas, M Gabey (A Beattie, 64).

Gloucester: R Todd; D O'Leary, J Ewens (T Fanolua, 73), H Paul, D Albanese; L Mercier, A Gomarsall (D Yachvili, 62); P Collazo (T Woodman, 48), C Fortey, P Vickery (capt), R Fidler (E Pearce, 36), M Cornwell, J Boer, A Hazell, J Paramore (A Eustace, 51).

Referee: S Lander (Liverpool).