Ethan Badham went back to work yesterday after a long weekend that he will remember for the rest of his life.

The Spartans captain may not have ended up on the winning side at Twickenham on Saturday, but he was still drinking in the memories after “an amazing weekend that I’ll never forget”.

The Gloucester One team’s players did themselves, the club and the county proud as they pushed Yorkshire Three club Goole all the way before succumbing to a 31-24 defeat.

The club’s fab four days started on Friday when they drove up to London and were given a tour of Twickenham.

They stayed in a hotel overnight close to the ground and after the game on Saturday they had a few beers before returning to Gloucester where they had the party of all parties at the Spartans clubhouse.

“After that I went to a mate’s house for an after party and we kept going right through until Sunday so that we could watch the club’s 3rds play Matson in the Glanville Cup final at Kingsholm,” said Badham.

The 21-year-old gas engineer was still in good spirits when asked to reflect on his big day at the home of English rugby.

“From start to finish it was just unreal,” he said. “The whole weekend was just incredible.

“Standing in the tunnel before the start of the game made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

“We were standing in the tunnel for a couple of minutes and you could hear the crowd outside.

“I couldn’t believe how many people were there – not just our fans but theirs as well.”

So how did he find playing on the Twickenham pitch?

“Tiring,” he laughed. “I found myself having to take a couple of tactical breaks in the first 20 minutes!”

Despite the result Badham was delighted with the team’s performance.

“We left absolutely nothing out on the pitch,” he said. “Everyone played well. I’ve watched the match back and it was a great game of rugby. Both teams played well.”

There was to be no happy ending for Spartans 3rds either as they were beaten 44-7 by Matson 3rds at Sunday lunchtime but Badham wasn’t going to let that detract from a remarkable year for the club.

“It’s been a fantastic season,” he said. “It’s not just about the 1st team, all the other teams have performed as well. Everyone is involved, it’s a real club thing at Spartans.”

The first team will play in Gloucester Premier next season after winning the Gloucester One title last month and Badham hopes to continue as skipper.

“I want to captain the side as long as possible,” he said. “Hopefully the players think I’ve done a good enough job and they’ll vote for me again.”

Before that the club have their dinner/dance at the clubhouse on Friday night.

“That will be the last night out with the boys for a few weeks,” chuckled Badham. “I’ll have a little rest after that.”

Not too long a rest though as the club have their tour to Benidorm in June.

It’s one of those rugby tours where they go on tour but don’t play any rugby matches.

“There’s about 40 of us going, there’s no rugby but lots of drinking,” laughed Badham.