Jimmy Cowan has had his first taste of European rugby in the Amlin Challenge Cup with Gloucester and has already set his sights on having more and playing in the Heineken Cup.
The former All Black scrum half, who arrived at Kingsholm at the end of September, was a second half replacement for Dave Lewis in the Cherry and Whites 11-6 victory over Mont-de-Marsan last weekend.
Gloucester will be looking to build on their hard-fought victory on their Pool 1 opener when they play host to another French side Bordeaux Begles at Kingsholm.
Cowan, who won 51 caps for New Zealand, has still to make his first full start for the English Premiership outfit but he makes no bones about the fact that the prospect of playing in Europe was part of the lure to leave home.
"I wanted to come here to play in the Heineken Cup and my job and focus now is to get Gloucester back up there in Tier 1," said Cowan.
"The Amlin Challenge Cup is a good tournament and gives you a good experience of different cultures, with the French teams. There are a lot of big clubs in the competition that you hear a lot about back home."
The 30-year-old does reveal the growing audience and popularity of European rugby back home in his native New Zealand and, of course, the home of the current World Champions.
"There are a lot of televised games in New Zealand and there is a huge following for a TV programme called Northern Exposure which is about European rugby and is on for half and hour every week," said Cowan.
"More and more New Zealanders are coming here to play and that gets people in New Zealand watching."
Cowan may still be waiting to make his first competitive start for his new club and is ready to bide his time and prove his worth, but he has already noticed the physical intensity of the game in Europe.
"There is a huge physicallity and a different culture of rugby and I have to earn the right to play for Gloucester and the only whay I can do that is on the training paddock," said Cowan.
"I do like the physicality of the game here and I like to keep the ball in front of the forwards and it's a style which will suit me, but my focus is on on Gloucester and I hope we can do a job in the Amlin or the Premiership to get back in the Heineken Cup."
Bordeaux Begles will be looking to put the disappointment of their opening Pool defeat at home of 43-16 to London Irish. The French side will also want to improve their discipline and defence against Gloucester.
The French side were forced to play for 20 minutes with 14-men when Rohan Kitshoff and Fabien Rofes were sin-binned by Irish referee Dudley Phillips and conceded six tries to London Irish on their home patch.
