It’s fasten your seatbelts time for Gloucester rugby supporters as the season goes full speed ahead into the final quarter.

And some final quarter it promises to be as Gloucester chase a place in the end-of-season Premiership play-offs for the first time for a good number of years.

Their impressive 29-7 win at fellow play-off hopefuls Harlequins nine days ago firmly established them in the top four of the table and there is now clear daylight between themselves and fifth-placed Sale.

With just six games remaining Gloucester have a seven-point advantage over both Sale and sixth-placed Bath and a win at home over Wasps on Saturday – Wasps are four places and nine points below Gloucester – would really get the Kingsholm faithful believing that this could be their year to make it into the end-of-season shootout.

And Billy Twelvetrees, for one, is determined to do all he can to make sure that the dream becomes a reality.

The 30-year-old fly-half or centre has been a major player for Gloucester since joining the club from Leicester in 2012 and he said: “There’s a real hunger among the group to do well, we’re desperate to be in the play-offs.

“Quite a lot of us have been together for quite a long time. There’s a real cohesion in the squad, there’s a real stability.

“We want to be playing in the big games, we want to be winning the trophies. Everyone is on the same page, we won the European Challenge Cup a few seasons ago but we want more.”

That won’t be easy of course with even Leicester, who are down in 10th place, knowing that six wins on the bounce could catapult them into the play-offs.

Saracens and Exeter – the two standout teams in English rugby in recent times – are all but certain to make the play-offs but despite the points cushion that third-placed Harlequins and Gloucester currently enjoy on the teams below them, the other two places are still very much up for grabs.

“It’s so hard in the Premiership,” continued Twelvetrees. “Apart from the top two, everyone seems to be beating everyone. It can be so frustrating because we can win a couple of really big games and then lose to a team everyone expects us to beat.

“But with six games to go it’s going to be a great run-in, it’s hugely exciting.”

And lest people forget, Gloucester have already beaten Exeter twice – once in the Champions Cup – and Saracens once this season.

After Wasps, Gloucester travel to seventh-placed Northampton on Sunday 7th April before entertaining Bath six days later.

Their final three fixtures are at relegation-threatened Worcester Warriors (Sunday 28th April), at home to bottom-of-the-table Newcastle (Saturday 4th May) and at Sale (18th May).