“We can’t wait for the new season to start.”

So says Drybrook chairman Chris Rawlings, who like everyone else at the go-ahead Forest of Dean club is still feeding off the feelgood factor from last season’s tremendous late surge which took them to the South West One West title.

Not for Rawlings are there any fears or concerns about what South West Premier will bring, just a very keen sense of excitement and anticipation.

“It’s so good,” said Rawlings, who was a very good player himself for Drybrook back in the day. “It’s been fantastic what has happened at this club.

“We know it’s going to be hard this season but we think we can compete, the boys have been hard at it in pre-season.”

Rawlings, now in his mid-40s, played over 700 games for the club and also captained the 1st XV for five years.

They were good days of course but he admits he never expected the club to playing at a higher level than near neighbours Lydney, who will be playing in South West One West this season.

“Never in a month of Sundays,” he said. “Lydney are still a very good club and they will be back but for us to be playing above them… I never thought that would happen, especially when I was a player.”

That makes it all the more special for Rawlings of course and he’ll be cheering from the sidelines when Ben Large, who will captain the side for a fifth successive season – “He was voted in unanimously,” said Rawlings – leads his men out for the first time at the higher level at Exeter University on Saturday 1st September.

That match is sure to be a bit tasty because it was the Devon side who Drybrook just pipped to the title, which meant the students had to secure their place via the play-offs.

Drybrook won 31-28 down there towards the end of last season and the coaching team of Tim Stevenson and Chris Fortey would like nothing more than a repeat of that result.

Stephenson, who also plays, will again have a key role on the field at 10 along with the likes of centre Ben Large and tearaway flanker Joe Tingle who Rawlings describes as “outstanding”.

Tingle and Large are just two of a good number of youngsters who have broken into the flagship team in recent seasons and the club are keen that even more come through now and in the future.

“We’re trying to make the 2nd XV more of a development team,” explained Rawlings. “We want more youth in the team and a closer link between the 1sts and 2nds.

“We know the quality is there because quite a few stepped up for the 1sts last season.”

There are big hopes for a couple of teenagers – scrum-half Regan Marsh and back row Bailey Watts – who, says Rawlings “will be knocking on the door”.

And as well as the top two teams, the club will also run a 3rds and a vets team.

The vets team is very popular and Rawlings said: “They play about once a month but train every Tuesday, they get about 30 turn up.

“They travel as far as Salisbury, North Bristol and Weston Hornets for fixtures.”

It shows the strength in depth at the club – they also run a women’s team and a minis and juniors section – and Rawlings added: “It’s brilliant, there’s a real buzz about the place.”

So what would be a successful season for Drybrook in South West Premier, a division that also contains old rivals and newly promoted Old Patesians?

“We want to stay up,” said Rawlings. “We don’t want to be just the top Gloucestershire side in the division because we could still go down if we achieved that.

“If we could finish around mid-table, that would be a hell of an achievement. That would be great.”

Indeed it would. So does Rawlings wish he was 20 years younger and running out with Ben Large and his team at the start of the new season.

“I’d love to,” he admitted. “Especially being a three-quarter and the style of rugby that we play these days, it’s great.

“When I played the ball was much more in the forwards. Mind you, I do enjoy watching this team play, especially with a beer in my hand!”