The Scarlets backline threatened in the opening quarter, but it was Gloucester who struck first against the run of play.
On their first visit deep into opposition territory, Nick Wood gathered the ball at the back of a Gloucester line out and set the platform for Fijian Akapusi Qera to drive his way through the middle of the defence for the opening score, which Tim Taylor converted.
The Magners League side responded immediately and from the re-start Gloucester were penalised in front of the posts and fly half Steve Shingler kicked over the three points.
Playing into the driving rain, the Scarlets continued to pile on the pressure and were rewarded with another Shingler penalty to bring the scores to within one point after 20 minutes.
Whilst the Welsh side dominated territory, they lacked execution and Gloucester used their dominance in the scrum to relieve their defensive pressure.
As the half continued Gloucester grew in confidence and came into the game. On the stoke of half time Lesley Vainikolo was replaced by Johnny May and the England Under 20 winger made an immediate impact, coming close to touching down on two occasions before finishing off a well worked move out wide to take Gloucester into the break 12-6 up.
The Scarlets rang the changes at half time and looked disjointed as Gloucester came out much the brighter and pinned their opponents back in the opening exchanges.
Bret Deacon on debut put his marker down for the season, making countless inroads in the weakening Scarlets defence. Gloucester repeatedly shunned the chance for three points in search of the try line and were rewarded in the 52nd minute with hooker Darren Dawidiuk, drove over, with Taylor adding the conversion.
The Scarlets started to drop off their first up tackles, with Tim Molenaar and then Taylor capitalising. Taylor’s break took Gloucester into the 22 and Charlie Sharples raced through to collect Henry Trinder’s chip to score in the corner with Taylor converting from the touch line.
Gloucester were much the better side in the second half, cruising towards the end as the Scarlets first half creativity diminished.
The Welsh side now head back to the Parc y Scarlets to face further Aviva Premiership opposition in the form of Worcester Warriors and Exeter Chiefs to conclude their pre-season campaign, before kicking off their league season away to Magners League new boys Benetton Treviso.
