THEY will come from the deep – as long as they have the courage.
Free-running Gloucester are ready to attack from almost anywhere against London Irish.
Boss Nigel Davies will send his Cherry and Whites charges out at Kingsholm this weekend, telling them to strike from their own 22.
Gloucester host the Exiles in the two sides' second-straight Amlin Challenge Cup clash on Saturday (kick-off 3pm), where victory would cement their pool one advantage.
Rugby director Davies was encouraged by his side's second-half fightback in last weekend's 29-22 turnaround triumph in Reading, blasting 20 unanswered points in the final 25 minutes.
And now he wants his men to build on that revamped attacking blueprint and exploit fast break opportunities wherever they arise.
Davies said: "We attacked from deep at the weekend and that's one of the best areas to capitalise on if you've got the courage and the accuracy to do it.
"We managed that after the break at Irish last week, and we'll definitely be aiming to do that again this time around.
"It's definitely all about the bravery and the conviction, to take teams on running from your own 22, but these players increasingly know when something's on and when something's not.
"All along the plan has been to harness the attacking talent, but that's a long-term goal and long-term process.
"We've got the chance to kick-start that now, though, and it's a great challenge.
"We showed our mettle in the second half, we weren't fazed by the fact they scored two tries early on themselves, and we can be pleased with overturning that 13-point deficit.
"That's important, to ride those knocks and come back strongly, and we did.
"We played some good stuff to bring ourselves back into the game.
"We struggled in the first half because we couldn't hold on to the ball, but we improved markedly in the second half."
Davies is intent on sharpening up this revised approach ahead of Gloucester's Christmas league clashes against Exeter Chiefs and Leicester Tigers.
And the former Wales centre admitted he may well employ Freddie Burns at 12 again in future – because if he turns out there he will operate as an auxiliary outside-half in any case.
The former Scarlets boss said he employed that system at the Welsh regional side with Steve Jones and Rhys Priestland.
And when he feels the tactic will pay dividend, then he could pitch Burns back into that role.
Normally Billy Twelvetrees will be on hand to cover off that dual playmaker option, but against Irish last week he was rested.
Davies continued: "Freddie went ok at 12, we did actually mix him and Tim Taylor around a bit, depending on which side of the field we were.
"He certainly gave us width, and it's something I've done before when I had Rhys Priestland and Steve Jones at the Scarlets, you get two first-receivers and for whatever reason you tend to get more width on your game and we did that.
"You need to have a certain amount of versatility, and he certainly showed he can play a role there, in a certain type of situation. He's obviously not going to take the wallop for you, but he'll give you width, he'll give you more passes and he's also a great communicator.
"Being a ten himself he knows how important it is to communicate to the ten, and I think he did that very well with Tim.
"We are very mindful of the amount of game time certain players have had.
"Billy is the only player in our squad who has averaged more than 60 minutes in each game he's played this season.
"So he needed a rest and ideally I'd have liked to have rested Mike Tindall as well, but we didn't have that luxury with the injuries we've got."
