But now he's back where it all began and, during a break from training, admitted that he's excited to be back but concentrating on maintaining his focus and putting in the hard yards in training.
"I'm just trying to get my head down and get on with the hard work, no one's shirt is safe and there's going to be massive competition for the nine shirt and hopefully I can be a part of that.
"There's healthy competition for the number nine shirt but all I can focus on really is my own game. Dan (Robson) is an U20 international, Dave (Lewis) has a lot of Premiership experience for someone his age and Rory (Lawson) is an established international.
"It'll be tough getting some game time but I'm looking forward to the challenge and showing what I can do. I enjoy just playing the game."
A large part of preseason is obviously about fitness work and the talk coming out of the Kingsholm camp has hinted at the need for the scrum halves to be uber fit in order to facilitate Gloucester's planned high temp game.
It's a challenge that Runciman is taking on with relish.
"I'm looking forward to trying to get as fit as possible, part of the nine's game involves a lot of running and hard work.
"With the way Gloucester play and the expansive game, Brush (Bryan Redpath) wants that tempo high and for the nines to be on top of the ball so it's important the fitness is there.
"It's a great challenge, we all want to get as fit as we can anyway, so having an extra focus on that can only be a good thing."
And learning from Redpath, whose glittering domestic and international scrum half career speaks for itself, was another big factor behind Runciman's return.
"I'm really looking forward to working with Brush, focussing on passing and kicking and trying to gain as much as possible from his knowledge.
"He was at the top of his game as a player and certainly he was always very sharp positionally, and it will be great being to learn from him in terms of all the skills, like passing and kicking."
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