TWO happier returns this term underscore Dan Murphy's consistent Kingsholm rise.
But the 27-year-old is keen to ensure double success at old club London Irish is just the start.
The former Exiles loosehead prop enjoyed two frustrating days at old stomping ground the Madejski Stadium last term.
Gloucester slipped up 23-15 in the LV=Cup in February – and everyone knows about the 52-18 Premiership hammering in May and its wider significance.
Now though, in the space of this campaign's first three months, Murphy has helped Gloucester pull off two impressive victories in the usually-unforgiving Reading arena.
Buoyed by Saturday's 29-22 Amlin Challenge Cup turnaround and his try within it, the Romford-born front-rower also knows Gloucester took considerable heart from their 40-31 Premiership victory in September.
Gearing up to face Brian Smith's men at Kingsholm this Saturday (kick-off 3pm), Murphy is relishing a more central Cherry and Whites role this term.
After battling for breakthroughs under Bryan Redpath, now he is a vital cog in Nigel Davies' reign.
But if his four Gloucester clashes against his former club sum up his Kingsholm progress Murphy is not about to settle.
Instead he is plotting two more victories over the Exiles, to help Gloucester stride past the turn of the year in rude health.
Saturday's try-scorer explained: "I'm enjoying my rugby and playing for Gloucester.
"The resilience in the final stages of games, that just sums up how everything is at the club.
"It's nice to score against your old team and get a win too.
"I remember coming back twice last year and being on the wrong end of the result both times, and now we've come and won twice.
"So it's great to be on the top end of the results.
"We've got that never-say-never attitude and it's serving us well.
"This puts us in control of the group, especially after the result on Thursday.
"So we'll go into this weekend with a lot of confidence. A win could really put us in the driving seat.
"We're going for this full-tilt, no doubt.
"Win this competition and you win a place in the Heineken, it's where everyone wants to be, and we're serious about chasing silverware.
"We're used to this kind of back-to-back fixture in Europe, but having them in the Premiership shortly afterwards in January as well, if we can build a lot of momentum going into that second week that will fuel their demons a bit.
"We're always quietly confident when we play at Kingsholm, but we also know we've got to be on our guard again because Irish will be desperate to hit back.
"We're excited about our Christmas league games against Exeter and Leicester too, it should be a great run for us.
"First of all it's Irish at Kingsholm though and we've got to make sure we raise our level again.
"They threw everything at us and they'll do it again.
"They are always dangerous and they will want to hit back after Saturday.
"But we've got to make sure we can pull together an 80-minute performance, and not just a late rally."
Revealing the half-time refocus that helped jolt Gloucester to victory on Saturday, he added: "It was a great result, a great effort to turn it around.
"We said to each other at half-time: 'Look, we've played badly but we're only four points down, keep the ball and it will come'.
"And it did, eventually.
"Even though we let in two soft tries after the break, it just showed it even more – that if we just keep the ball, we'll score.
"And the resilience in the last 25 minutes of the game just shows how far Gloucester have come this year, we never give in."
