Last Sunday evening, Charlie Atkinson was nestled into his sofa at home in Cheltenham. Head still a touch fuzzy from the celebrations of Gloucester’s West Country derby win over bitter rivals Bath the Friday before, recovery was the order of the day. Then the phone rang.

‘I had a bit of YouTube on,’ Atkinson tells Daily Mail Sport. ‘It was about 6.30pm. I was just starting to think about having a bath and getting into bed by 8pm!

‘We’d enjoyed ourselves after the Bath win. I had a few beers. Not too many, but the body was a bit battered so I was just resting up. Then I saw Steve Borthwick was calling. He told me he needed me in England camp that night!

'My boots and gumshield were at Kingsholm. I didn’t have anything I needed on me at home, so I had to rush to the ground and then on to Pennyhill Park. Luckily, there was someone to let me in on a Sunday night!’

A calf injury suffered by England No10 Fin Smith, which has put him in danger of missing the autumn series opener with Australia on November 8, led to an emergency Test summons for Atkinson. He might be a late call-up but it was also fully deserved – a reflection of his impressive personal development and Gloucester’s collective resurgence as the current leaders of PREM Rugby.

‘I did a few England camps when I was younger and maybe felt a little bit like I wasn’t meant to be there,’ Atkinson admits. ‘Now we’re doing well at Gloucester, it felt more deserved.’

Smith, his namesake Marcus and George Ford are England’s three established playmakers. But Atkinson, 25, is hoping to disrupt the star trio and has been training with the group this week. Borthwick is hopeful Fin Smith will be fit for Australia, but his ongoing treatment may mean Atkinson again joins up with England at the start of next week.

International honours have always been the aim for Atkinson, who came through the Wasps academy, joined Leicester when the former folded in 2022 and then a year later signed for Gloucester. He has one cap to his name as a replacement for Ford in the USA last year. It was a full circle moment.

In February 2020, Ford and England trained at Abingdon School where Atkinson was a sixth-form pupil. The two posed for a picture, as they had done five years earlier when Atkinson was just 12.

‘I didn’t get to watch much of the training session as I had lessons,’ Atkinson laughs. ‘I’d had another picture with George before that. I showed him it after the USA game. I’ve got a Justin Bieber haircut and only come up to his chest!

‘As a 17-year-old kid, watching England and meeting the players definitely spurred me on. I’d just signed with Wasps at that point. Even then, I can remember there was a different intensity to an England environment. I remember George and Owen Farrell controlling the session. George is 33 but he’s in better shape than me now!

‘He’s a hell of a player. All anyone can do is hope to have a resume like his – multiple PREM titles, 100-plus caps, three World Cups. To go from having pictures with him as a kid to kicking with him after every training session has been pretty cool.

'To come on for him for my Test debut is something that felt scripted. If you’d told me that would happen when I was 13, I’d never have believed you.’

Atkinson is now a team-mate of Ford’s on merit. Like his Gloucester side, he is a coming force.

He has found a home at Kingsholm, establishing himself as the Cherry and Whites’ primary playmaker. Sitting atop the PREM pile, Gloucester travel to reigning champions Northampton on Saturday looking to make another statement after the comprehensive swatting aside of Bath last week and a highly creditable draw with back-to-back European champions Bordeaux.

‘I know I was called up late this week because of an injury,’ Atkinson says. ‘But in the past two seasons, when England squads have been announced, I didn’t feel hard done by. This time, when I missed out initially, I was more gutted than before. Steve keeps pushing me to improve. I spent a few months with him at Leicester.

‘England will always be in the back of my head. Life is pretty consistent right now, pretty good. It’s always better when you’re winning! We’ve had some great new guys come in at Gloucester – the Welsh lads, Jac Morgan and Dewi Lake. Jean Kleyn as well.

'Things are going well and touch wood, hopefully it continues. If we can beat the reigning champions away from home, then people will be forced to see Gloucester as a real threat. That's what we want.

'At the minute, every game is a statement game. We had Bordeaux at home. We drew that, but I thought we played well. Then it was Bath, our big rivals, and now Northampton.’

There are positive signs everywhere you look at Gloucester. For so long PREM underachievers, they have been revitalised this term after finishing eighth last season. 

Atkinson, who previously spent time at full-back, has come to the fore at No10. He swept the board at the club’s end-of-season awards in the summer and has committed his long-term future to George Skivington’s side. So too has his namesake, England centre Seb, in another statement of intent.

'The main thing for me is maintaining that consistency and delivering good performances,’ Atkinson says. ‘It’s still early in the season, so we’re not getting ahead of ourselves. We haven’t won an away game yet.’

When England’s 2003 World Cup-winning coach Sir Clive Woodward made a trip to Kingsholm in May, Atkinson outplayed Ford in their head-to-head, scoring a match-winning try in what was a dead rubber of a game with Sale.

Woodward was impressed and noted Atkinson’s speed and running threat. They are his points of difference. As nods of approval go, they don’t come much better in English rugby.

Fin Smith's injury will deny Atkinson another titanic battle on Saturday, but it’s another chance for him and Gloucester to continue their upward curve. And to make another statement to Borthwick.

‘This is a chance for us to really stand up and be counted,’ Atkinson says. ‘I’ve been here three seasons now and it’s not always been the most positive. The fans have stuck with us. We owe it to them to try to be successful.’