Bristol slumped to their first defeat of the season and their heaviest ever at Kingsholm against a rampant Gloucester in the EDF Energy Cup.

A fragmented first half left Ludovic Mercier and Danny Gray trading penalties.

Bristol's foundering scrum gifted Gloucester six points, but Gray kept the scores level off the back of two sloppy line-outs, the second of which saw Patrice Collazo sin-binned for dealing out his own form of retribution following a previous fracas.

That left 28 men on the pitch, with Bristol lock Nathan Budgett already in the bin for blatantly hitting the ruck from the side.

It was the first of two professional fouls earning Bristol men yellow cards, with Budgett's second-row partner Mariano Sambucetti failing to finish the half.

But Gloucester managed to add 10 points while they were down a man. Mercier thumped over another penalty when Bristol hauled down a maul off the restart and then took a glance off the posts to convert Mark Foster's first try of the season.

The winger was on the end of a sweeping move that started from a loose line-out collected by Peter Buxton and taken on by Andy Hazell and finished with centre Rudi Keil and Jack Adams making ground for Foster to sprint over.

Gloucester's lead was short-lived as Bristol, with Budgett back on the pitch, notched a try of their own. Pouncing on a poor kick by Keil and a fumble from Adams, Bernardo Stortoni kicked the bobbling ball on and grounded it before crashing into the hoardings.

Gray added the conversion, but that was Bristol's last real interest in the match as they fell apart.

Peter Richards did his claims for an autumn Test start with England no harm with some searing breaks, including one off the back of a ferocious driving maul to slide over in the corner.

Mercier's conversion sent Gloucester into the break leading 23-13.

With a minute gone in the second half, John Goodridge raced over for the first of his two tries, taking a sweet pass from Adams to dive over for the only unconverted try.

Then it was all change for Gloucester as Goodridge shifted to the wing and Mercier to full-back to accommodate Ryan Lamb's return to action for the first time this season.

Inside four minutes he took a pass from Luke Narraway after Buxton's break to secure the bonus point.

Goodridge was next over following Anthony Allen's break, with James Bailey crossing off his own interception and James Forrester taking Allen's pass to score.

Tries by Sambucetti and Andy Reay were a consolation and Rory Lawson compounded Bristol's misery with Gloucester's final try in injury time, which Mercier converted to complete his 23-point haul.