Gloucester Rugby legend Peter Butler's weekly look at the Cherry and Whites:

I HAVE to admit to feeling shell shocked in the aftermath of Gloucester's defeat to Exeter on Saturday.

I was among those expecting a comfortable win for the Cherry and Whites against a team playing its first-ever game in the top flight of English rugby.

Bryan Redpath described the defeat as unacceptable – as ever, the master of the understatement.

After all the positive talk coming out of Kingsholm over the summer Gloucester go and spoil everything by starting like that.

It is a rewind to the opening salvos of last season when, after beating Bath at Kingsholm, Gloucester went on to struggle to string anything together and the result was a massive restriction of the freedom the players had out on the field.

But this season was meant to be different – it was meant to be a season of open rugby, of a breakdown favouring the attacking team and the ball moving through the hands.

We got most of that at Sandy Park on Saturday, but although Gloucester went south west with many good intentions the end product was embarrassingly short and we are left fearing yet another false dawn.

Fair play to Exeter, they executed their forwards- orientated style superbly and deserved their win if only because of the number of frankly schoolboy errors the supposedly superior Gloucester backs made.

I would warn them that they will not have it that easy again this term – they barely did anything apart from wait for Gloucester to make mistakes.

Now where have I heard that before?

I take our head coach back to the comments he made in The Citizen recently about cutting out the cheap chat and focusing on the job in hand.

I suggest he takes a bit of his own advice over the next week, because Gloucester need to come back with something impressive at home against Leeds to at least start the campaign at home off with a bang.

My fear is the defeat on Saturday can have the type of destabilising affect that previous early-season setbacks have had on the Cherry and Whites.

I urge Mr Redpath to stick with the running rugby and it will click in the end.

Do not let this one defeat become a reason to forget everything he has preached over the summer.

FOSTER ALWAYS GAVE EVERYTHING

I WOULD like to say many congratulations to Mark Foster for his try in Exeter’s win over Gloucester.

When Foster was at Kingsholm he was never the best player in the world, but he was always happy to fill the role of squad man and turn out when he was required.

I’m happy to see him move on to another club and get some more regular rugby.

I always felt Foster’s departure could have been dealt with a bit better.

It was one of those you could see coming from a mile off, but while others chose to leave as their commitment wavered, Foster was always willing to step up to the plate.

On a final note, I hope Gloucester are ready for the visit of Leeds this weekend.

After a stuffing by Bath on their own patch, Neil Back and Andy Key will have them up for it.

Who can forget the way the northerners came back in the second half of last season to survive?

ROBINSON NEEDS TO SHOW HIS METTLE:

SATURDAY underlined another of the issues Gloucester have at the moment – the lack of an outstanding goal-kicker.

Had Nicky Robinson been able to give the Cherry and Whites the platform of three, six, nine points at Sandy Park, the new-season jitters which produced so many silly errors would soon have evaporated.

When good teams turn up like Gloucester did at the weekend they rely on their goal-kicker to drag them through, but Robinson was nowhere to be seen.

I am not going to say Gloucester should have turned to Tim Taylor when Robinson was aiming wide so frequently, because the type of attitude the Welshman has means he is able to forget the last kick almost immediately.

He treats each kick on its individual merits – the reason he missed so often on Saturday was that every one had pressure on it.

I hate to say it, but Robinson seems to lack the mental toughness to go into the zone when the going is against Gloucester and still be able to produce the kicks which keep the Cherry and Whites in the game.

For the record, I do not see Taylor as a front-line kicker either.

Freddie Burns has shown he can slot them, so perhaps it is now time for the youngster, when fit, to step up to the plate and kick the goals.

Robinson, meanwhile, has to forget Saturday. He has now had two competitive shockers in a row for Gloucester (remember Worcester away in the last act of last season?).

He needs to get back to Kingsholm and find his range again, both with the boot and with the brain.