Coney Hill Rugby Club are ambitious.

Just how ambitious becomes apparent within a minute of talking to club chairman of the past five years Simon Harrison.

“We want promotion this season,” he told The Local Answer. “That’s the aim. We also want to win the North Gloucestershire Combination Senior Cup and reach the semi-final of the National Cup. And the following season we want to win promotion again.”

That’s some challenge for a club that finished in the bottom four of Western Counties North last time out – albeit with a 10-point deduction for failing to fulfil their fixtures the previous campaign.

It may be challenging but it’s one that Harrison believes is well within the club’s compass.

“We have spent a lot of time attracting the right players and our squad now is quite astounding in terms of quality,” he said. “It’s brilliant. I think promotion this season and next is very probable.”

The two men charged with turning the dreams into reality are forwards coach Craig Greer and backs coach Andy Macrae.

Greer is a Polish international who numbers Edinburgh among his former clubs. A prop who can play on either side of the scrum, he joined the club last season and assumed some coaching responsibilities towards the back end of the campaign.

Macrae is one of those players who can play almost anywhere, being equally effective as a no. 8 or in the centre.

They’ve got some exciting new players to work with as well this season.

“We’ve got a couple of New Zealanders,” said Harrison. “Dwayne Burrows is a centre who has played for New Zealand provinces and George Lott is a scrum-half. They’ve both committed to the club for the next few years.

“And we’ve got David McIlwaine who is an Irish international sevens centre.”

So how have Coney Hill, who started pre-season training in mid-June, attracted these players?

“Through friendships we’ve built up with various clubs,” said Harrison. “They’ve bought into what we’re trying to do at the club.

”We’re certainly not paying them to play. Paying players at our level is impractical. We’ve signed a lot of players locally as well and I’d say we’ve got a phenomenally strong playing side.

“And this season we’ve got no points handicap either!”

Harrison, a Gloucester businessman who lives in Cheltenham, is relatively new to rugby.

He played hockey as a youngster and through his early adult years back home in Birmingham.

“When I was a wee lad I used to play prop before I took up what many people tell me is the softer game. Mind you, I can tell you when a hockey ball hits you it hurts!”

His involvement in rugby started when his two boys – Ted and Frank – started playing junior rugby at Coney Hill which was just round the corner from where they lived at the time.

“I became chairman of the junior section,” Harrison said.

Since then, of course, he has taken on one of the leading roles at the club.

“Myself, John Dix and Simon Baldwin are directors of the club,” he said. “There were a lot of ex-rugby players who were the heart and soul of the club but weren’t necessarily business minded.

“We’ve sorted out the financial side, now we need to sort out the rugby side of things.”