The 26-year-old was handed the No 9 shirt for last weekend's Memorial Stadium clash with Birmingham & Solihull – and responded by scoring one of Bristol's four tries in their 28-0 win.

Captain and fellow scrum-half Jason Spice is fit to face Rotherham tomorrow after overcoming a minor injury – but Shaw has retained his place in the match-day squad.

And the former Esher man is now determined to gain as much first-team experience as possible as Bristol's bid for promotion to the Guinness Premiership gathers momentum.

"I was very happy to get out there last weekend. You train every day to play – and it's hard when you don't play," said Shaw.

"But I'm learning so much from Spicy and he's the captain here. Just watching him is proving really valuable to my game and I can't complain when he starts games.

"All you can do is take your chances when you're given them – and then hopefully you'll get some more."

Spice started Bristol's first 11 Championship matches this season, before sitting out the British & Irish Cup games at Neath and Munster and last weekend's victory over Birmingham.

And although the New Zealander is blocking his route to regular first-team rugby, Shaw is more than happy to be learning from the former Auckland, Wellington, Ospreys and Cardiff Blues man.

"With Spicy, I just want to sap his brain – but I recognise there's only so much he can teach me," said Shaw.

"A lot of what he does comes from the experience he's had from playing at the top level for so many years. He can teach you and tell you what you need to do, but until you do it naturally, it's really hard.

"At the moment, I'm trying to take on board all the information I can from him – and when I get the chance to play, I try to put it into action.

"The information I get from him is invaluable and I honestly couldn't ask for someone more experienced to be learning from."

But while Shaw is eager to compete with Spice for the No 9 shirt, he is not losing sight of his own competition with Sam Alford.

The 23-year-old made a try-scoring appearance of his own in the recent British & Irish Cup win at Neath and is in a similar position to Shaw within the squad. I think myself and Sam are quite similar players," said Shaw. "We'll try to use our speed, beat people and run around a lot more, whereas Spicy seems to get to the breakdowns quicker without running – he just knows how to get there!

"But we're both learning from him and we're constantly trying to pick his brain. It's good to have competition and Sam's a very hard competitor and a great scrum-half, so it's always good to push each other. Hopefully, if I get another opportunity I can build on what I did last time – but you can never relax or rest on your laurels."

Rotherham: M Whitehead; J Feeley, PJ Gidlow, K Maggs, B Hunt; J West, N Chivers; A O'Donnell, N Conroy, B Prescott, A Barnes, G Hayter, J Skurr, T du Plessis, S Dickinson. Reps: S Jenkins, C Voisey, M Challinor, A Kleeburger, M Farmer, N Buckley, T Allen.

Bristol (from): Backs – S Giddens, T Arscott, G Watkins, L Robinson, L Eves, J Adams, J Fatialofa, A Jarvis, C Ashwin, J Spice, R Shaw. Forwards – M Irish, D Blaney, R Johnston, D Crompton, M Vunipola, W Thompson, D Barry, R Winters, M Sambucetti, N Budgett, R Pennycook, J Phillips, D Montagu, I Grieve.