Matt Kvesic has admitted that he and the rest of the Gloucester forwards need to provide the backs with more ball action if they are to improve their recent form.

The Cherry and Whites convincingly lost to Bath 15-13 in a local derby on Friday night to make it four defeats from their six Aviva Premiership games so far this season.

"We were never going to chuck the ball wide with the weather against Bath. It's historically wet at The Rec and the forwards ultimately win the game," Kvesic told the media. "If we step up and give our boys more ball, they are not necessarily going to be able to run it into the corner on nights like that one. But what it will do is give Freddie Burns an opportunity to play to the corner and pile the pressure on like that.

"It strangles teams and that's where we've got to be smarter. It comes back to consistency. We got stuck in and showed what we can do. We stayed in mix but we needed to play more in their half. Bath played some smart rugby, which wasn't anything particularly flash but they ran hard and played in our half and that's what we need to do. We've shown it throughout the season. We had a terrible start against Sale and on the road against Sarries which was a tough game but we picked ourselves up against Saints.

"So there needs to be more consistency all over the pitch whether it is in the scrum, the maul, defence, drop balls – they all need to be addressed. Those are the areas where we need to be more clinical and more accurate and put teams to bed. We've had chances there to do it but we just haven't."

Gloucester host Wasps on Saturday at Kingsholm.