The Cherry and Whites achieved back-to-back first place finishes before falling away in the play-offs leading to his move to the Madejski.

A promising start to life at Irish soon fizzled out in his debut season but Lamb is confident he can shed his unwanted unfulfilled potential tag.

“I’m only 24 and I might be a bit of late blossomer,” said the five-time England Saxon. “I came onto the scene at Gloucester and played some good rugby for a couple of years, but then I tailed off.

“But moving here refreshed me and having coaches like Toby Booth and Mike Catt is helping me no end.

“On a personal level, I was delighted with the way I started my career here and I was back to the level of rugby I want to be playing. But when the team wasn’t doing well, I could definitely have played better and my kicking game went awry.

“But I’ve been working hard to put that all behind me and I’ve been doing a lot of stuff with Catty.

“We’ve really been knuckling down on my kicking and structure to my game and I think that will show this season.”