The sporting term ‘all-rounder’ is something that is readily associated with cricket.

Think Botham, Flintoff or – the best of the three – Gloucestershire’s adopted son Mike Procter.

It’s not a word that is used so often to describe rugby people, but it’s a very apt description for one Matt Bayliss.

Rugby has played a big part in Bayliss’ life – a very big part – initially as a player and then as a top referee before taking on various prominent roles off the pitch.

Born in Coney Hill in the heart of Gloucester, it was almost inevitable that rugby and Bayliss would go together like Kingsholm and The Shed.

“I’ve been a Gloucester boy all my life,” the 72-year-old said. “I’ve never lived more than five miles from the holy ground… Kingsholm. I’ve lived in Coney Hill, Churchdown and for the past 40 years Highnam.”

And although rugby was all around him from a young age, it was his older brothers who actually got him hands-on in those formative years.

“My brother Bill was chairman of Coney Hill Rugby Club,” Bayliss recalled, “and I was the bath boy at the club. I’d put the bath on for the players after training and after matches – it was one of those old Ascot heaters that used to take four hours to heat up the water.

“I’d make the tea and clean the clubhouse. I was only 14 and the players used to give me tips.”

While brother Bill was a big noise at Coney Hill, another brother, Wally, founded Matson Rugby Club and was the club’s secretary, so it was always rugby, rugby and more rugby for the youngest Bayliss.

However, he didn’t really start playing the game until he was 13 or 14 – there were no minis and juniors in those days – but he very quickly announced himself as a pretty decent back row, able to play blindside or no. 8.

He was playing for Coney Hill at the age of 15 and within two years he was in the club’s 1st XV.

“There were some really good games in those days,” said Bayliss. “We’d play all the local teams and the Bristol teams. They were all tough.

“If you were playing local rugby you had to be pretty good.”

And Bayliss certainly was pretty good because it wasn’t long before he was given the chance to play for Gloucester Colts.

“I played a couple of seasons for them,” he said. “I was lucky enough to play with the likes of Mike Burton and Roy Morris – they were the two standout players.

“I followed people like John Bayliss into the team – he was a couple of years before me – but if you were playing for Gloucester Colts they thought you had potential.

“I had a year back at Coney Hill after Gloucester Colts and then at the age of 19 I tried my luck at Gloucester.”

He was to spend four years with the club, mostly with the United whom he captained for two seasons.

“I was quite happy to have that on my rugby record,” said Bayliss. “I played more than 20 games for the 1st XV as well – I was just proud to wear the shirt.

“It was an honour for me to put on the shirt.”

And although most of his games were for the United, those matches were a pretty important part of the club’s rugby calendar.

“We used to play in front of crowds of 2,000 or 3,000,” Bayliss said. “In our day there was always a game at Kingsholm every Saturday at 3pm from September to April, whether it be the 1st XV or the United.

“We had some good times but we took it seriously, we’d train on a Tuesday and Thursday and play on a Saturday.”

Bayliss used to get his chance in the first team when other players weren’t available.

“I was a fringe player and I’d get to play on a county day,” said Bayliss. “I remember beating Coventry away and playing at Newport – they were lovely experiences.”

And there were some great Gloucester names with whom Bayliss was going out into the heat of battle with.

And the names trip off the Bayliss tongue: “Mike Burton, Mickey Booth, Peter Ford – he was coming to the end of his career – Dick Smith, Micky Potter – he was just coming through – John Haines, Roy Morris, Jack Fowke, Mike Nicholls – if ever there was a leader it was Mike – Keith Richardson. A lot of them came through the United.”

Bayliss meanwhile knew his time was up at the club when John Watkins joined, so he made the short trip up the road to join Cheltenham.

“Cheltenham were very strong in those days,” Bayliss said. “They had some very good fixtures against Gloucester, Bristol, Bath, Lydney, Stroud, Coventry, Moseley. We’d also play the Welsh clubs in midweek – Ebbw Vale, Swansea, Bridgend.

“In those days Cheltenham were considered just below Gloucester and if you fancied yourself as a local player you’d go to Cheltenham, Lydney or Stroud and if you did well you’d go to Gloucester.”

Bayliss spent three seasons with Cheltenham – the last two as captain – and played with some stellar names. “Phil Blakeway was playing in the front row at 16,” chuckled Bayliss, “and there was also John Fidler, Bob Redwood, Bob White and Dave Protherough. Cheltenham had some damn good players.

“We also had Mike Hamlin, Maurice Hamlin and Wes Hall.”

After Cheltenham, Bayliss went back home to Coney Hill where he played for two more seasons.

“That was great fun,” said Bayliss. “They were a social rugby club and I played with the likes of Mike and Eddie Rooney and Wes Hall.”

An ear injury forced him to stop playing the game he loved at the age of 32, but although the gumshield was now redundant his willingness to work for the good of all things rugby certainly wasn’t.

“I’d refereed a couple of games at Coney Hill and quite enjoyed it,” he said. “I’d also done a couple of coaching sessions, but I found that frustrating because I couldn’t get the players to do what I wanted.”

So with that in mind, it was a fairly easy decision to take up the whistle and it’s certainly something that he’s never regretted.

“I always enjoyed doing it,” he said. “If you could referee in those days in Gloucester, the Forest of Dean, Cheltenham or Stroud, you weren’t a bad referee.

“It was a great training area for refs because it was a very high standard of rugby.”

And Bayliss was certainly a quick learner.

“Within a season and a bit I was doing first team rugby,” said Bayliss. “I was reffing teams in the North Gloucester Combination and that’s when you get better – teams like Matson, Gordon League, Chosen Hill and Tredworth.

“They were good sides and if you could referee them you could referee most games.”

Bayliss was soon establishing a reputation as one of the best referees in the area and beyond, but in those days the man in charge had a very different role to the one played by the likes of Wayne Barnes today.

“We weren’t told to coach a game, we were told to ref it,” Bayliss explained. “I think that refs today talk too much; they manage a game, they don’t ref it.”

Another big difference today, of course, is that the game is so professional.

“I never thought of making a career out of being a referee,” said Bayliss. “I just wanted something to do on a Saturday afternoon. The biggest money I ever got was 20p a mile – I never charged a junior club – and a couple of pints after the game!”

But while Bayliss certainly wasn’t in it for the money, his sterling efforts had certainly caught the eye of those in the know.

“I was on the RFU referees’ panel for 10 years and I was in the elite squad for four, which put you in the top five referees in the country,” he said.

“I refereed at every top club in the country, it was wonderful.”

He also got to officiate at the ‘holy ground’ on two occasions.

“The first was a game against Canterbury from New Zealand,” he chuckled. “It was Gloucester’s heaviest ever defeat. I disallowed a Gloucester try two minutes in and Fordy [Peter Ford] said, ‘You’ll never come back!’

“I also got invited to do the England/Gloucester game to celebrate 100 years of Kingsholm. I thought, ‘What an honour’, but then they decided that with my Gloucester connections I shouldn’t be reffing the game.”

All was not lost for Bayliss, however.

“The following week there was another game, this time against Ireland,” he said. “Next to referee, it just said ‘Matt Bayliss, Highnam’. The Irish hadn’t got a clue where Highnam was so I was able to referee that game!”

And while Bayliss was clearly right up there among the very best there were, there was, nevertheless, the odd disappointment along the way.

“I never got to referee in the Six Nations,” he said. “I was also a reserve for the World Cup. I got all the kit but I never put it on.”

But there were some undoubted highs along the way too.

“My proudest moment was refereeing France v the All Blacks in 1991,” he said. “It doesn’t get any bigger than that. I remember standing there thinking, ‘My gosh, I’m here in the middle of all this. It wasn’t just the hackles on the back of my neck that were up, they were up on the back of my shirt too!”

Bayliss also refereed Australia v Barbarians at Twickenham and while that was obviously another big game, he has fond memories of officiating in local games as well.

“I remember reffing a Combination Cup game at Matson against Gordon League,” he chuckled. “There were about 3,000 watching, it was amazing. Half the people were on the pitch. If the ball got kicked down the field three spectators would catch it!”

Happy days for Bayliss, and although he and his whistle travelled the world he never forgot where the journey started.

“You had to prove yourself week in, week out at junior level,” Bayliss said. “It kept your feet on the ground – you didn’t want to let the Gloucestershire Referees’ Society down.”

So what makes a good referee?

“You need to have a feel for it,” said Bayliss. “In 20 years of refereeing I only sent off 18 players and three of those were in one game.

“I had a feeling when things were going to blow. I’d go and stand near someone if I thought they were about to throw a punch, because I knew they wouldn’t if I was watching them.”

It was a philosophy that worked at all levels of the game.

“One week I’d be reffing Matson at Berry Hill and the next I’d be doing Leicester v Harlequins,” said Bayliss.

“I used to go all over the county but the kit bag was just the same and mentally it was just the same – you’d just go there and do your best.”

And Bayliss’ best was certainly good enough for the best part of two decades, retiring just before the game turned professional.

“I’d decided that I was going to retire, I told the RFU on the Friday and on the Saturday the game went professional,” he chuckled.

“I wouldn’t have got a contract, I was 50 and I’d had enough.”

He may have had enough of refereeing but he certainly hadn’t had enough of rugby.

“I moved onto the disciplinary side and was one of the first three citing officers in the world,” he said. “I did that for 17 years. When I started we used to have three days to look at a video and another two days to do a review. Nowadays it all has to be done in 24 hours.”

And typical of Bayliss, although his IRB role took him all over the world, he never forgot his roots, becoming chairman of the Gloucestershire disciplinary committee in the early noughties.

“That was good fun,” he said. “We had quite a few season-ticket holders! You’d see the same people come in all of the time.

“I used to hold my meetings at Matson so their players knew where to go! The committee room there had a steel door which was great because no one could get at us!”

He remains a member of the RFU and IRB panels to this day, although he says he will give up those roles at the end of the season because “it’s a young man’s game”.

Throw in spells as commercial manager for both Cinderford and Hartpury and it’s fair to say that Bayliss has had as many jobs in rugby as Danny Cipriani has had clubs.

These days he’s president of Hartpury RFC, a role you won’t be surprised to hear he thoroughly enjoys.

“I’d been commercial manager at Cinderford for five years,” he said. “I took it on when I was 60 and I wish I’d done it 30 years earlier. It was a good way to earn a living and I was still involved in rugby.

“I decided to retire at 65 but then Malcolm Waldron, the principal at Hartpury College, said ‘Give me two years’.

“They were in South West One at the time – it was just college rugby – but then everything took off.

“Allan Lewis was the director of rugby and he was brilliant, and went on to coach Wales Under-20s.

“I was commercial manager there for six years, and when I told them I was going to stop because I was 70 they called an extraordinary meeting and made me president.”

And as you’d expect from someone who has devoted his life to rugby, it’s a role he takes very seriously.

“I’m an ambassador for the college and I go to pretty much all the games,” he said. “I’ve only missed seven or eight RFC games in the past nine years.”

Whether he’s watching, playing or officiating, Matt Bayliss really is a rugby man through and through.