You have very little time, you run straighter and you commit the defence to come straight at you rather than drift across the field.'They have no time to respond to what you are doing but you are under a fantastic amount of personal pressure and there is a much higher skill level involved. It's actually not that new - Leicester had a thing about it in the Seventies and early Eighties. When it goes right it goes very right and when it goes wrong it's fairly horrific.'Russ has been influenced by the philosophy of a Tiger of that very era: Clive Woodward, who took Henley, unbeaten, to the National Fifth Division last season and is now coaching London Irish. By contrast, Gloucester had no back- play tradition whatsoever with which to influence Corless.'Last summer I looked at the strength of the side and the way I'd like them to play, and it certainly wasn't the old 10- and nine- man stuff,' he said.

'The players were unanimous that they wanted to be more expansive and adventurous. It suited us very well.'Gloucester had their own pre-season visit to South Africa to experience at first hand the abandon of their back play, right down to club level 'I was fascinated by South African sides,' Corless said. 'When we played them, they all did the same thing: run everything. If, for instance, you kick the ball to them they say thank you very much and run it back. Every time.'But then, this being England, came the rain to spoil everything.