Old Centralians will be hoping the ‘Preece is right’ when they head for Kingsholm for the North Gloucestershire Combination cup finals day on Sunday.

The Gloucester club have teams in the Senior Cup and Junior Cup finals and both sides feature the name Preece more than once in their line-ups.

The 1sts, who took on Coney Hill, are also coached by a Preece – former player Jack – as they look to end the season with a pot for their mantelpiece.

“Yes, there are quite a few Preeces,” laughed Jack. “They’re all cousins of mine. There’s Sam who is a prop in the 1sts and his brother Joe is on the bench for the 2nds. He’s just come back from injury.

“Then there’s another cousin, Harry, who is scrum-half for the 1sts, and his older brother George is scrum-half and captain of the 2nds.”

Jack will be particularly pleased to see George lead out his team against Matson 2nds.

“He’s done an outstanding job,” said Jack. “He’s only 22 and when he took on the job everyone said it would be a real tough one but he’s done ever so well.

“They’ve only lost two of their 22 games and they’ve had some real tough fixtures.”

Jack is hoping to end the campaign on a high with the 1sts after an up-and-down season in South West One East.

“It will be nice to end the season with a trophy,” he said.  “I’m looking forward to it. It will be great to see how our young backs get on, on the big Kingsholm pitch. They’ve developed well this season.”

Jack, 27, is in his first season back as coach with Old Cents after coaching the club for five years when he was younger. “I got asked to do some coaching pre-season and it went from there,” he said.

He has a good playing pedigree that has taken him to Rotherham, Birmingham Moseley and, next season, Coventry.

He wants to continue coaching Old Cents in 2017/18 and his training schedule allows him to do that – Mondays and Wednesdays with Cents and Tuesdays and Thursdays at Coventry.

He’ll be at Kingsholm on Sunday but has to hand over the reins most Saturdays to his sidekick and former player Ben Slatter.

“He was a good no. 8,” said Jack. “He’s hung up his boots but he still plays the odd game if we’re short and he’s still one of our best players. In fact, I’ve put him on the bench on Sunday.”

Old Cents play two levels above Coney Hill, who play in Western Counties North and, says Coney Hill president Eddie Rooney, will start as favourites.

“It’s going to be a very hard game but you never know what’s going to happen in a cup final,” Rooney said.

“On the day, everyone is equal. We’ve been there before as underdogs and done well.

“Because of the occasion players step up. We need to get into their faces, stop them playing and cause them to panic.”

Rooney, now 65, has been to many cup finals over the years. He was a no. 8 with Coney Hill for 42 years and also spent three years with Gloucester from 1978-1980 where he played as a centre.

One of Coney Hill’s key men, Andy McRae, can also play at no.8 or in the centre although Rooney is hoping he lines up in the pack on Sunday.

“He’s a very powerful player for us and I think we need him up front,” he said. “I think they’ve got some good backs so we need to stop them from getting too much ball.

“I just hope that we put on a good show and we don’t let ourselves down. We’ll certainly be up for it.”

Matson, like Old Cents, have two teams at Kingsholm on Sunday.

Their 2nds take on Cents in the Junior Cup final after their 3rds have played against Spartans 3rds in the Glanville Cup final.

Club captain John Hennessy, while disappointed that the first team won’t be there, is delighted that the club will again be well represented at the showpiece occasion.

“It’s brilliant for us,” he said. “It’s another big day for the club and just shows the strength in depth we’ve got.

“We’ve put a couple of strong teams out and we’re going to Kingsholm quietly confident that we can win a couple of trophies.”

To do that they will have to overcome the third team of club of the moment Spartans. Spartans supporters will be hoping, of course, that when the match kicks off at 11am on Sunday they will already have the National Junior Vase in their trophy cabinet after the first team’s trip to Twickenham the previous day to play Goole.

Cup final dates - Sunday, May 7 (all finals at Kingsholm)
Glanville Cup final: Matson 3rds v Spartans 3rds, 11am
Junior Cup final: Matson 2nds v Old Centralians 2nds, 2pm
Senior Cup final: Old Centralians v Coney Hill, 5pm