GLOUCESTER seem to be in a new business now - rewriting biblical stories. They did their best against Worcester to turn wine into water.

The early signs were good. There were even a couple of ticket touts buying and selling in Worcester Street - when did you last witness that at a club match.

Of course, a local derby will always attract a healthy crowd and there were 16,500 at this game. If future fare is as ineffective, however, that number will see a dramatic decrease when the opponents are not half an hour away along the M5.

Worcester's name is totally appropriate - the Warriors. They battle it out and when they play it is no place for faint hearts. Yet Gloucester initially swept them aside with ease and even accepted a Qera try that was a New Year's gift from Worcester scrum half Jonny Arr.

In the first 17 minutes, Gloucester had just about all the possession, had a stranglehold on position and were running the ball wide with gay abandon. Unfortunately, they seemed unable to catch the final pass when the simplest of tries was waiting. There was something surreal about the fact that the team doing all the attacking was a mere 5-0 up and that was changed to 5-3 with a Walker penalty.

It was all a tale of 'nearly'. Robinson could not time a place kick attempt but some of his searing breaks should have had a better return than zero. There were missed overlaps, dropped passes and a player being robbed of the ball just short of the line. It might have been comical if it wasn't so desperately serious.

Then Worcester introduced a tactic totally outside the spirit of the game - they got the ball and ran straight. It very nearly brought off a deserved victory.

All teams have a bad day at the office. But who is calling the shots when the office becomes a difficult workplace for the Cherry and Whites? We were running the ball wide and making a total Horlicks of it - so why weren't other tactics employed? The only decent driving maul belonged to Worcester and the pick-and-go might have forced the visitors to defend closer to the breakdown to leave a bit of space for the players outside.

It wasn't as if the opponents had been previously adept at scoring tries. I believe that their Rico Gear try in the 29th minute was their first in open play (away from forwards driving on) in 430 minutes of Premiership play. And they repeated the dose with an excellent blindside dart and five points from scrum half Arr just before half-time.

The second half went the way of the first - hero to zero in the blink of an eye. Gloucester started by getting forward quickly and sub Molenaar seemed to add some momentum. But it quickly became apparent that passes were being dropped and the kicker could not kick.

Luckily, Worcester had thought too much at half-time and failed to believe they were going to win. A simple missed penalty in the 68th minute would have taken the score to 8-16 and would have put the cat among the pigeons.

In the 79th minute Gloucester did hold on to a pass or two and Attwood scored the try to gain what had seemed the most unlikely of 13-13 draws. Carlos Spencer even had a long conversion to win the game, but that would have seen the reincarnation of Dick Turpin.

Gloucester are all fur coat and no knickers at the moment with rugby that looks good but is wasted if the simplest passes are dropped. Yet the Kingsholm faithful kept urging and willing their team on with a passion that will rarely be matched anywhere, even when the home team is lucky to get a home draw.