Longlevens Rugby Club have a proud history.

The impressive club tucked away in the shadows of Kingsholm have produced some top players over the years for their close neighbours – Mike Burton, Ian Smith, Andy Deacon, Pete Jones, Mike Hamlin, Marcus Hannaford, Derrick Morgan… the list goes on and on.

The production line may have slowed up a little in recent years in terms of players going through to the very highest levels of the game in this country – rugby becoming a truly global sport has had a lot to do with that of course – but there are still some pretty useful players coming out of Longford Lane.

“Sam Underhill and Tom Griffiths,” said Longlevens chairman Richard Rudge with justifiable pride. “Sam’s at Bath now and has just won his first England cap, while Tom is part of the first team squad at Saracens and played for them in the sevens tournament in the summer.”

Back row Underhill and Griffiths, a centre, both went to school at Sir Thomas Rich’s and both retain strong links with the area.

Griffiths was part of the Longlevens side that played in the Junior Vase final at Twickenham in 2014 and Rudge added: “We still see quite a bit of Tom. He comes and watches the 1st XV when he can and he’s still got a lot of mates here.”

Many of those friends are now wearing the club’s distinctive red and white shirts in the first team and they’ve got every chance of being as successful at their level as Underhill, Griffiths and all the great names before them.

That’s because the senior teams are being coached these days by Gloucester and ex-New Zealand prop John Afoa and Gloucester centre Henry Trinder.

It’s Afoa’s second season at the helm of the Gloucester Premier club, who are captained by back row Jed Holmend-Jones, while Trinder is in his first season having taken over from James Hook.

Rudge doubled up as the club’s director of rugby last season, but this season the job has been taken on by Tom Lovell who has arrived from Midsomer Norton.

But Rudge, as you’d expect from someone who has been involved with the club for 34 years, remains very much hands-on, however, and is delighted at the input the club receive from their two Gloucester stars.

“I taught them everything they know,” he laughed, before adding, with tongue out of cheek, “they’re fantastic. They’re really involved with the club and watch us play whenever they can.

“John is a typical All Black. He gets the kit out, he puts it away. If he sees any mess he tidies it up or makes sure someone else does. Henry has been a real good addition too and we get 25 to 30 at training.

“They’ve put on some really good sessions and we’re then able to roll that out to our juniors.”

The club’s junior section under the chairmanship of Kev Tompkins is a thriving concern too and while the seniors are being coached by two top names, the juniors are getting some pretty high standard coaching as well.

“We’ve got Lee Fortey and Chris Fortey coaching the under-10s and under-11s,” said Rudge. “Pete Glanville and Andy Stanley also do some coaching. All their kids are part of the junior section.”

All told the club have some 300 juniors – “maybe more,” added Rudge – starting from under-7s through to under-16s.

And while the youngsters are very much the future of the club, the present remains very important as well although Rudge, for one, is not one of those people who sees climbing the leagues as the be-all and end-all for the club.

“I’d only like to go one league higher, maybe two,” he said. “After that there is a lot of travelling and it puts a lot of strain on everyone.”

One of the great things about Longlevens is that it’s clear they are not just concerned about their flagship team and they have recently established a Mixed Ability Rugby team.

“We have just completed the handover from Terry Fanolua and the Gloucester Community Department,” said club stalwart Chris Yorke, “so all of the players will now be members of Longlevens RFC and will therefore become the fourth senior team.

“The project has proven to be a great success and can be traced back to the club’s strategic decision to put participation in front of performance.

“We decided we could try and be like everybody else using all our resources to make the 1st XV as successful as possible, but actually there is a huge demand for MAR in Gloucestershire and the club are just starting to see the benefits, which include bringing in vital new members and offering rare coaching opportunities to our current membership.

“The mixed ability model encourages social inclusion by removing barriers to people who feel unable to join mainstream grassroots clubs or groups due to physical or mental health issues, size, shape, age, disability, prolonged inactivity, or a perception of ‘not being good enough’.

“When we say we are a community club and everybody is welcome we mean it.”

Rudge stepped aside from his director of rugby role in the summer after eight years so that he can spend more time developing the club as a whole.

He has been chairman for the past five years and has big plans to improve the facilities at the club and make them a greater part of the community.

“We’ve only got two pitches at our ground and that’s not enough,” he admitted. “We want an all-weather pitch alongside the two rugby pitches. We’re in discussions at the moment and looking at outline planning.”

The club are working closely with Longlevens-based Milestone School – a school for children with special needs – which would benefit greatly if and when the all-weather pitch becomes a reality because it would be available to them on weekdays.

While the mixed ability team is something Rudge wants to develop, he is also keen that the club open their doors to non-rugby people.

“We want to be more than just a rugby club, we want to be a club that can be used by everyone in the community,” added Rudge.

“We can be used for pilates or yoga sessions, hold bingo sessions and maybe have a tea party on Friday afternoons.”

If any or all of those ideas do take off you can be sure that Rudge will be one of the first through the door to help make sure everything works smoothly.

The club have been a huge part of his life since he first started with the juniors at the age of 12. Although he had brief spells with Spartans and Gloucester Colts, he played almost exclusively for Longlevens – mainly in the centre – and was also captain for “seven or eight years”.

It’s a passion that hasn’t dimmed since he hung up his boots.

“I live in Simon Road in Longlevens which backs on to the ground,” he chuckled. “I can see the pitches from my house. My son Archie started with the club at the age of eight and he’s just broken into the 1st XV.”

And there’s no shortage of support for scrum-half Archie on Saturday afternoons as his three sisters are also very much involved in the club along with mum Sam who is on the club’s ladies’ committee.