Bradley Winchle has taken over as Dursley’s senior rugby manager.

It’s not the first time he has done the job – “A small group of the seniors tend to take it in turns,” he explained – but he’s hoping this could be the first season that the club have a decent run in the National Junior Vase.

“We’ve never got out of the Gloucestershire section,” he said. “It’s so brutal. We got knocked out by Spartans last season, which I suppose wasn’t too bad as they finished second in the competition.”

Spartans, of course, had that great day out at Twickenham at the end of April and although they lost the final to Goole, it is a day that will live long in the memory of all their players and supporters.

Winchle would love a bit of that too. Newent and Longlevens are other Gloucestershire clubs to have played on the hallowed turf at English rugby’s HQ in recent times and Winchle said: “Yes, it would be a dream. If we could get out of the county section a lot of people from other clubs say that the competition gets easier after that!”

Closer to home, Dursley have established a reputation for themselves as a bit of a local cup team, having won the Stroud Combination Senior Cup for the past three years, beating Cirencester 38-0 this season.

“We’d like to win that again, obviously,” said Winchle, “and we’d like to finish in the top three in Gloucester One and push for promotion.

“We were second for a lot of last season but didn’t finish well and ended fifth.”

Gloucestershire back row Jack Robson will again captain the 1st XV and at least Dursley won’t have to contend with Spartans this season after their title-winning campaign last time out.

It’s not all about the 1st XV of course. The club will run again run a 2nd XV and there are also plans for seven or eight games for the 3rd XV and three or four games for a veterans’ XV “once the ground softens up”.

The club also have a thriving ladies’ section and a burgeoning junior set-up.

“The women are playing league rugby this season – I think they’ll be going all over to places like High Wycombe – while the youngsters are a huge boost to the club,” said Winchle. “We’ve got so many coming to the club and a lot of them are feeding through. Because of our geographical location we do rely on these youngsters.”