The Chosen Hill Rugby Club player production line is showing no signs of slowing down.

The club that has produced Gloucester and England under-20 hooker Joe Mullis, Gloucester centre Elliott Creed and academy player Rowan Mullis - Joe’s brother - has seen another couple of young players develop in their first team this season.

Scrum-half Tom Knight, 18, has been selected for Gloucestershire’s under-20s, while another 18-year-old, openside flanker Zac Taylor, has also made it into the county under-20 squad.

“We’ve brought a few young players through,” said club chairman Phil King. “It’s always good to see players in the first team who have come through our junior set-up.”

Young and Taylor have played their part in a strong Chosen Hill showing in Western Counties North which saw them fall agonisingly short in the race for promotion.

Despite the disappointment, King said: “It’s been a good season. We’ve beaten Coney Hill and Matson and only lost 41-34 to Old Centralians in the semi-final of the North Gloucestershire Combination Cup.”

Although Chosen Hill pride themselves on their youth policy, they have also had a number of older heads in the first team to provide the necessary guidance to the youngsters when the going gets tough.

Fly-half Andy King has been joined by the likes of Ian and Marc Riddel and Dean Barnard and although Phil King believes some of them may reduce their playing commitments next season he’s certain there is still enough strength in depth at the club to mount a promotion charge in 2017/18.

And he should know. The chairman for the past eight years only played for Chosen Hill and it is a club very close to his heart.

“I used to be a full-back or wing,” he said, “although I played anywhere they picked me. We run the club as a family club and my sons Andy and Mike still play.”

King, who is married to Jennifer, says he may step down as chairman at the AGM, which will probably take place in August. “Sometimes everyone needs a change,” he said.

Before that there is the small matter of the club’s end-of-season tour which this year takes them to Benidorm for three nights from May 24. Past tours have seen them enjoy the delights of Magaluf and Salou.

“We play a game on the beach between ourselves,” chuckled King. “There will be up to 40 of us going from 18-year-olds to those aged 60-plus.”

No problems raising a team, then, so will King be going?

“Oh yes,” he said. “They need me to look after them, they need a baby-sitter.”

And will he play on the beach?

“I’ll play anywhere they pick me,” he laughed.