Andy Deacon will be given the opportunity to mastermind Cirencester Rugby Club’s return to Western Counties North after this season’s relegation.

The one-time Gloucester prop is to continue in his role as director of rugby for a third season when he will be looking to repeat his success of 2015/16 when he guided the club to promotion from Gloucester Premier.

“We’re very pleased that he’s agreed to stay on,” said Chairman Tim Thompson. “He’s got a good coaching staff and the results have not been down to them.

“We lost seven or eight of last season’s squad through injuries and players going to university.

“At the start of the season we were quite optimistic that we would put in a good showing in the league but we always knew it was going to be tough even with the squad we had at the end of last season let alone with a slightly lesser squad.”

Thompson, who has been chairman at the club for four years, is still able to find positives from the season.

“We beat Cheltenham home and away,” he said. “We also had quite a lot of guys step up from the second team. Some of them may have thought that their days at first-team level had ended while there were others who may have thought they’d never get the chance in the first team.”

Back row or second row Will McCarthy captained the side this season, taking over from no. 8 Alex Hammond who stood down so that he could concentrate on his own game.

Two players who have stood out for Thompson this season are centre Dave Evans and back row James Renowden.

“Evans has been absolutely solid in the centre,” said Thompson. “He’s a real workhorse and never takes a backward step.

“Renowden is probably the fittest bloke in the team. He’s always training and always has a positive attitude.”

Positive is a good way to describe the club’s youth set-up. “We’ve got in excess of 30 kids in each age group from under-6 all the way through to the Colts,” says Thompson.

“This Sunday 30th April, we have our annual youth 7s tournament. It’s one of the longest running youth competitions in the county and is always well attended with over 400 kids from 13 clubs around the county.

“It’s a good opportunity for all the girls and boys to finish the season with a competition and win some medals.”

Then later that week the club holds its annual end-of-season dinner on Friday 5th May when legendary England prop Jason Leonard will be the guest speaker. Around 150 people are expected to attend.

Clearly there is still plenty to be positive about at Cirencester Rugby Club.