There can’t be too many 60-somethings who have lifted a trophy at Kingsholm, the home of Gloucester and a ground which remains one of the great venues in world rugby.

But that’s exactly what Rod Creese did on Saturday, helping Old Centralians 3rds to a 33-30 win over Matson 3rds to clinch the North Gloucestershire Combination’s Glanville Cup.

It’s a remarkable achievement because Creese was 61 in February and has been playing adult rugby for some 45 years.

“Avoiding injury is the key,” he said modestly. “And staying fit, I’m a fitness nut.”

And you certainly need to be fit to get around a rugby pitch, especially in the back row where Creese has played most of his career.

“I played number six against Matson,” he said, “but I had a spell in the second row when someone got yellow carded, my pace isn’t what it used to be!

“I play quite a bit in the second row because I’m quite skinny and easy to lift. It’s not that I’m particularly brilliant but if the thrower throws the ball straight I can catch it.”

Creese, who has played rugby in every one of those 45 seasons since joining Gordon League from school, has played quite regularly for Old Cents 2nds since Christmas although these days he plays on more of an ad hoc basis because a lot of clubs don’t field 2nd and 3rd XVs every week.

He spent three years at Gordon League before joining Old Centralians – who were then known as Saintbridge – and apart from four years with Matson in the mid-90s has been with the club ever since.

“When I was with Gordon League it coincided with them being the dominant side in Gloucester,” recalled Creese. “I was playing County Colts rugby but I could only get in their 3rds.”

The former King’s School pupil, who had his own butcher’s shop in Hucclecote for 22 years before retiring last year, was still a teenager when he joined Old Centralians and he says he has loved every minute of his time at the club.

“The beauty of rugby is that I can go into almost every rugby club in the city and know people – Coney Hill, Gordon League, Matson – that’s my pleasure,” he said.

And he’s had plenty to enjoy on the pitch as well as off it over the years and has come a long, long way since his early school days when he was stuck out on the wing.

“I was tiny and skinny but I could always run so they put me out on the wing,” he said. “I didn’t like it there because you’d get the ball once in a game.

“So I moved to the back row where you saw a lot more of the ball. I was glued to the ball and I always had a good engine.”

He was a good leader too because he captained Old Cents twice – in 1989 and 1991 – and on both occasions the club reached the semi-finals of the North Gloucestershire Combination’s Senior Cup.

“We lost to Matson 13-10 and then two years later we lost something like 9-4 to Spartans,” he said, “and both teams won their finals comfortably.

“Old Cents have always had a good side but there’s more strength in depth now. They are a lot more consistent and over the past five years this is certainly the strongest the 1st XV have ever been.”

But while Creese never won the Senior Cup, he has at least won the Junior Cup with Cents as well as the Glanville Cup – and also captained Matson to a cup final win in the Glanville Cup.

He enjoyed his time at Matson even though he recalls scoring a hat-trick of tries in a 2nd XV game against Cinderford which they won by 70 points and then getting dropped!

“They were so strong they could afford to be picky,” he said with a chuckle.

In his final season with the club he fractured his eye socket and broke his cheekbone and that coupled with the arrival of his son Archie saw him return to Cents.

“I started watching them play and I just sort of wandered back,” he said.

That was 22 years ago so how long does he intend to keep on playing?

“I love playing rugby but I ache through and through,” he said 48 hours after Saturday’s cup final. “My wife Kim worries every time I go out on the pitch.

“Every season I say this will be my last, but then I’ll watch a game and I don’t really like watching.

“I’ll either run the line or I’ll say I’ll just have 10 minutes playing with the 2nds. If I had any sense I’d pack it in!”

And if and when he does finally say enough is enough – or his body tells him ‘no more’! – he will at least still be throwing a rugby ball about once a week.

“I’m a member of Dodderers Touch Rugby Club,” he continued. “The former Gloucester player John Simonett was one of the founder members.

“Quite a few of the players are in their late 50s or early 60s and we meet in Stonehouse every Sunday morning at 8am.

“Mind you, I must admit I didn’t make it this week!”