While Vickery is Gloucester's figurehead, Nigel Melville, who became director of rugby at Kingsholm in March, is still establishing himself. But his enthusiasm was evident.
Having enjoyed success at Wasps against a backdrop of apathy, here was a club and a region immersed in rugby. 'To share passion like that for the game and winning things with so many people is great,' he said. 'Maybe I've not had that before because it's always been about building a crowd and getting people up for a game. This is done for me now and it comes down to winning.'
Bristol went close to upsetting their neighbours on the back of an outstanding scrum and the ability of locks Garath Archer and Alex Brown to disrupt a patchy line-out. Yet Archer characterised Bristol's achilles heel, a lack of discipline proving their downfall. The booming boot of Ludovic Mercier punished them to the tune of seven penalties and, after England recruit Phil Christophers was sin binned, Henry Paul and prop Patrice Collazo combined to send Jake Boer in for Gloucester's only try.
Pichot caught Gloucester on the hop after the break to touch down from a quick tap penalty. But Melville's side kept their noses in front despite substitute Paul John-stone's 30-yard dash to the line.
Dean Ryan, the Bristol coach, said: 'This season has been about development, with an awful lot of young lads trying to find their way in the Premiership. It did take time but we are looking forward to taking it into a Heineken Cup environment. The Premiership is a global recruitment market and you can look around and find better players. But the priority is that this group stays together.'
As for Gloucester, installed as England's No.2 seeds for the Heineken Cup, challenging the champion Tigers must be the priority.
'We will go forward - we know we have got weaknesses, but now we've got a squad we can probably have some continuity with for next season,' said Melville. 'We will add play-ers to it but it won't be many, we've got good ones who can get better.'
Bristol: Best; Williams (Drahm 71), Rees, Little, Christophers; Contepomi, Pichot; Crompton (Johnstone 66), McCarthy, White, Archer, A. Brown, Short (Beattie 41), Lipman, Sturnham (Sheridan 51).
