By Luke Baker – Sportsbeat

LAST season featured contrasting emotions for Gloucester but centre Henry Trinder is convinced that winger Steph Reynolds could hold the key to them taking another step forward.

The Cherry & Whites ended the season ninth in the Premiership – a full 22 points behind a top-four spot – but overcame Edinburgh 19-13 to lift the European Challenge Cup.

However, that joy was tempered slightly as they suffered a heartbreaking 23-22 defeat to Bordeaux-Begles in the Champions Cup play-off to miss out on a place at Europe’s top table this term.

As Gloucester look to improve their league finish this time around, Trinder believes that speedster Reynolds is someone who deserves an increase in playing time.

A distinguished 7s player, the 21-year-old is yet to truly make his mark on the XVs game – he made just one Premiership appearance last season – but Trinder is adamant the youngster has all the tools to make a serious impression this year.

“I would definitely say people should keep an eye out for Steph Reynolds – he’s very exciting,” explained Trinder.

“I’ve known him for a few years through the academy and he’s really come on recently. We had testing the other day and he beat Charlie Sharples over 100m.

“That’s kind of a big deal – everyone knows how fast Charlie is, so that shows the talent Steph has.

“Hopefully we can do a good job this season of making him showcase that talent, pushing on with his game and having a big contribution to our season in our XVs.”

For his part, Trinder is currently battling his way back from a knee injury suffered in February after previously struggling with shoulder and hamstring complaints.

The 26-year-old is desperate to get back on the field and, once he does, he insists he’s ready to help Gloucester to the next level.

“For me, I just want to get fit, stay fit and take it from there. I had a great summer off, good fun but now I’ll do everything I can to make sure I come back fit and get back on the pitch,” added Trinder.

“Ninth wasn’t where we wanted to be last year – we’ll try to push on this season, we’ve got a long pre-season to cover everything we didn’t cover last year and get those foundations in place so it will carry us through.

“In terms of Europe, to win the Challenge Cup was one of our goals and we did that by showing some great form.

“We probably played our best rugby as a team in the knockout stages but in the Premiership it wasn’t quite the same. We didn’t really find our feet and got hit quite hard.”

Tickets for the Singha Premiership Rugby 7s Series are now on sale. For full details see premiershiprugby.com/7s