Sometimes you have to look down to go up.
If Gloucester want a play-off battle next season, they only need to beat everyone below them in the Premiership.
BEATING the best does not guarantee a play-off spot.
If there is one lesson for Gloucester from this season, it is that winning all your banker matches can be enough for a top-four Premiership finish.
This term Gloucester beat Leicester, Saracens and Harlequins at Kingsholm, and Northampton at Franklin's Gardens.
The Cherry and Whites even picked up losing bonus points in slender defeats in away clashes at Leicester, Saracens and Harlequins – and in their season-opening home defeat to Saints too.
But it was not enough to carry Nigel Davies' men into the end-of-season play-off battle.
Sloppy home defeat to London Irish and horrid capitulation in Salford against Sale Sharks brought the barrier down on top-four qualification.
Northampton finished fourth, five points ahead of Gloucester: two regulation victories from those two costly defeats would have been enough for Davies' side.
Gloucester's remarkable record against the Premiership powerhouses is in stark contrast to Northampton's shocking run against their top-four rivals.
Jim Mallinder's Saints failed to beat any of the other top-four finishers in the regular season.
Northampton mustered only a solitary draw against Saracens – and lost their five other tussles with their eventual semi-final counterparts.
Nothing can greater illustrate rugby director Davies' desire for Kingsholm consistency.
Winning almost every game against everyone below you actually does do the play-offs trick.
It may seem counter-intuitive, but the hard data speaks for itself.
Davies and his coaching staff will dig out the tiniest areas for improvement on a residential retreat this week.
They will already know all too well the shortcomings where the league table is concerned, but that will not make those pivotal results any easier to take.
Davies has already admitted a fair amount of frustration at Gloucester's play-off opportunity missed this season.
It is all very well, he believes, accepting a fifth-place finish and Heineken Cup rugby for next season.
But he also feels that the best teams do no let opportunities pass them by – even sides rich on potential and in their infancy.
Gloucester will improve next season, with Sione Kalamafoni, Ben Morgan, Dan Robson, Rob Cook and plenty more besides all benefiting from another year's experience.
But continual improvement is sport's natural order, so Davies knows his side will have to stay ahead of that upward curve.
Citing Gloucester's play-off shortfall illustrates the whys and wherefores but ultimately is also slightly harsh.
It is vital to add balance. Gloucester have just composed an all but excellent season.
Add the context of the previous campaign, and new boss Davies has transformed the club. The Cherry and Whites were minus a paddle on the proverbial when he arrived in the summer.
A trouble-shooter in his business career during rugby's amateur days, no wonder this role was the one to prise Davies away from hometown club Llanelli.
Experience of both management systems and rugby mechanics allowed Davies to spot a fair number of fast fixes.
With a clear plan in place before his arrival, he was able to swoop in and immediately restore the Kingsholm rudder.
Gloucester's board also learned a valuable lesson from the Redpath era: two coaches is simply not enough.
Davies lobbied for an extended coaching set-up, and Gloucester's improved and robust financial situation allowed the board to deliver.
Redpath and Carl Hogg were stretched too thinly when working as a duo, and even the addition of John Brain as rugby operations manager and scrum coach did not cover all bases.
When the fissures appeared, it was Redpath who cracked.
There will be no such repeat under Davies.
The master man-manager himself will make sure of it – but the revamped and fully-stocked coaching team is a clear benefit too.
Davies built immediate resilience in his squad, a mental attribute rightly lauded at every apparition.
This was a season of standout moments – many to cherish, some to chastise.
A term of international transition for Freddie Burns and Billy Twelvetrees, with Charlie Sharples criminally pitched in on the wrong wing, only to be jettisoned without fair cause.
A campaign of coming-of-age for scrum-half Robson, who will give Jimmy Cowan and new man Tavis Knoyle one hell of a battle for the nine shirt next year.
From James Simpson-Daniel scything off his wing to score against Wasps, to Morgan and Kalamafoni thundering through defenders at will, and on to Burns collecting his own chip for a stellar try against Leicester.
Cowan debuting in derby victory over Bath, and Lua Lokotui and Akapsui Qera both blasting Saints off the tryline to secure victory at Franklin's Gardens.
High-octane Kingsholm victory over Harlequins teed up so much, only for two turnovers compounded by charge-downs and tries at Sale to unravel the lingering play-off thread.
Whatever wonders, there is no escape from the gnawing annoyance of those unseemly blips.
A praiseworthy start for Davies. Now the fight to produce the superlative as standard.
