Elliott Stooke and Ollie Thorley are just two players who have come through the thriving junior set-up at Stow-on-the-Wold Rugby Club.

Second row Stooke, now 23, played more than 60 games for Gloucester and also had loan spells with London Irish before joining Bath.

Three-quarter Thorley, 20, is just starting out on his career at Kingsholm but has already shown he has an eye for scoring tries in the handful of games he has played for the club.

Sean Clarke, who is standing down as chairman of the minis and juniors after six years, is proud that these two players’ careers were, in part, shaped at Oddington Road, but he is just as proud of all the other players, past and present, who have cut their rugby teeth at age group level at the club.

Clarke has been coaching the under-14s this year – his son Archie is the scrum-half – and he will move up to the under-15s next season.

“There must be 280 boys and girls in our minis and juniors,” he enthused. “The key for us is that they all enjoy themselves, that’s our ethos.

“Of course you get the standout players and you want them to do well but we want all the kids who come to us to develop.

“Someone who comes to us an under-8 might not get his lightbulb moment until he reaches the under-10s but we want to progress all the players.

“We teach them the values of the game – respect, discipline, sportsmanship and team work. We want to develop them as people as well as rugby players.”

Clarke said that Stow are also trying to attract more girls into playing rugby.

“We started about two seasons ago after some girls at Cotswold School made us aware of their interest in the sport.

“I help to coach them but at the moment they only really train because we don’t have enough players to field a team. Most of the players we’ve got are under-13s but we’ve got two or three under-15s.

“We need to build up the numbers because they need to start playing matches.”

Judging by the success of the boys’ teams, that surely won’t be too long away.