Tom Hudson faces “a baptism of fire” when he makes his Premiership debut against Saracens at Kingsholm tonight (7.45pm).

Those are the words used by Gloucester’s newest full-back when he spoke to The Local Answer on the eve of the biggest game of his fledgling career.

The just turned 23-year-old has enjoyed two impressive try-scoring performances in the Anglo Welsh Cup against Leicester and London Irish over the past couple of weeks but Saracens at home in a competition that really matters in front of a packed Kingsholm is a massive step up.

And if that isn’t enough, BT Sport are beaming the game live into thousands of homes and pubs up and down the country as well.

“Yes, it’s incredibly exciting,” enthused Hudson, who is in his second season at Gloucester after moving down from Leicester. “I know I’ll be nervous but hopefully the nerves won’t show.

“It doesn’t get much bigger than this, playing my first Premiership game against the league leaders. It’s a baptism of fire. Everyone knows what a good kicking game they’ve got and how they like to work the full-back, but I’m in a good place at the moment.”

The Kingsholm faithful will certainly be hoping that is the case tonight and they’ll be cheering him on in a way that only Gloucester fans can, but just as importantly Hudson knows he will be able to count on the support of his team-mates in the heat of battle.

He learned of his selection on Tuesday and said. “Yeah, there were a few high fives, the players were really pleased for me. They’ve all been in this position before so they know how I’m feeling.

“But we’ve got a job of work to do and this is a game we want to win.”

The unavailability of Tom Marshall and Jason Woodward has fast-tracked Hudson into the first team and if enthusiasm counts for anything the new boy will have a stormer tonight.

“Yes, I’m loving life,” he said. “I was loving life before but this has just added to it.”

A lot of that enjoyment stems from his involvement with Cheltenham Tigers women’s team – he coaches them alongside Gloucester team-mate Charlie Beckett and held his usual Thursday night training session last night.

Hudson, from Manchester, may be about to go toe-to-toe with some of the biggest names in English rugby but he retains a burning passion for grassroots rugby, a passion that was developed in part thousands of miles away in South East Asia.

“I picked up a chronic back/groin injury about five years ago when I was in the academy at Leicester,” he said. “I was only 18 and I was out of rugby for two-and-a-half years.

“Leicester were brilliant. They knew I was struggling and sent me off to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to help establish a rugby team called KL Tigers. That’s where I got my love of local rugby.”

That love of rugby has certainly rubbed off at Cheltenham and some if not all of the women he coaches will be at Kingsholm tonight to roar him on. So too will members of his family.

Mind you, they’ve all got farther to go than the man himself because he only lives just round the corner from Kingsholm.

“Yes, I’ll be walking to the ground in my Gloucester gear,” he said.

He’ll be nervous for sure, but also very proud.