Luke Narraway would be more than happy to see Gloucester shed their status as must-see television viewing if it means delivering a first Guinness Premiership title in May.

The No 8, who has started 14 of his side's 18 matches so far this season, expects another tricky test at lowly Newcastle tomorrow.

And the 25-year-old England man says Gloucester are learning to grind out victories in a variety of styles – a tool he feels will prove crucial if they are to be crowned champions in four months' time.

"We are learning that there are different ways to skin a cat, whereas before we have gone out and been great TV," said Narraway.

"We have thrown the ball around and played good attacking rugby – and we've lost games. You would rather come away from a game winning and not playing spectacularly than playing great rugby and losing.

"We are learning, slowly and surely, that we don't have to play all of our rugby inside 10-20 minutes. If it means kicking long and staying in a chase game with a bit of ping-pong, then that's what we will do."

Gloucester's 22-16 win over Saracens last weekend was low on attacking enterprise – but crucially it was also low on mistakes from the victors.

The result sent Gloucester above Bath and into second place at the halfway point of the regular Premiership season – and Narraway says winning is the only thing that interests him these days.

"We maybe got a bit of flak from around the stands last weekend, because they wanted to see a little bit more rugby played – but sometimes it's not about that," said Narraway.

"We have had to learn over the last few years that it's all about winning. Before, we have fallen into a trap, because we like to think that we are good at playing rugby, so we have played rugby when the game hasn't needed that.

"In the big games, when you have to sit at 16-16, as we did at the weekend, we have come away losing those before.

"That's what we were getting criticised for – but last weekend we were losing 16-13 for 20 or 30 minutes of the game and yet came away with the victory."

Gloucester head to Newcastle tomorrow knowing the Falcons, second from bottom in the table and three points ahead of Bristol, are fighting to stay in the top-flight.

And with Gloucester's biggest margin of victory at Kingston Park being last season's 20-13 success, Narraway expects another tough battle.

"We generally don't travel well to Newcastle," he said. "I wouldn't say they are a bogey team but we traditionally struggle up there – for what reasons, I'm not sure.

"Plus we came off a drubbing from London Irish and the next week we stood up to it – and I expect nothing less from them. They had a tough time at London Irish, but they are back at home now fighting to stay up.

"On paper, people might say we have got a better squad or whatever, but it is a tough place to play. They are going to be fighting for every ball."

Gloucester have brought Mark Foster, Willie Walker, Rory Lawson, Alasdair Dickinson, Andy Titterrell and Marco Bortolami back into the side, while Anthony Allen is back on the bench following an ankle problem.

Newcastle: T May; D Williams, J Noon, T Tu'ipulotu, T Visser; R Clegg, M Young; D Wilson, R Vickers, C Hayman, T Swinson, G Parling, P Dowson (captain), E Williamson, A Balding. Reps: M Thompson, M Ward, M Sorenson, B Wilson, J Grindal, S Jones, A Tait.

Gloucester: O Morgan; M Watkins, M Tindall (capt), O Barkley, M Foster; W Walker, R Lawson; A Dickinson, A Titterrell, C Nieto, M Bortolami, A Brown, A Strokosch, A Satala, L Narraway. Reps: O Azam, N Wood, W James, A Eustace, D Lewis, R Lamb, A Allen.