Josh Lyons is still only 23 but he has achieved plenty in his rugby life.

For a start he is captain of Longlevens Rugby Club, the place that has been a second home to him since he first joined up as a 10-year-old.

And he was part of the team that won the RFU Junior Vase back in 2014, beating Rugby Lions 23-12 in that never-to-be forgotten final at Twickenham.

Lyons was just 18 on that memorable day at the home of English rugby, the greatest day in the club’s 63-year history.

Ask him if he thinks he can better that afternoon in years to come, he answers: “We’ll see, hopefully, you never know.”

This season has certainly begun well for Longlevens with the club challenging at the top of Gloucestershire Premier.

Lyons is in his first season as captain having taken over from Jed Holman-Jones, who led the side out at Twickenham and who packs down alongside Lyons in the second row.

“He’s still playing,” said Lyons. “He got injured last season and I think now he’s back he just wants to concentrate on playing.”

Back row Jake Kitson took over as skipper last season but Lyons is happy to take on the extra responsibility this time around.

“I’ve always wanted to captain the club,” said the former Churchdown School pupil. “I captained the club’s age group sides at under-16s and under-17s.”

Ask him what sort of captain he is and he’ll say: “I’ve yet to find that out!” before adding, “I don’t tend to shout much, I like to let my rugby do the talking. Hopefully the lads follow me.”

They’ve certainly been doing that this season and Lyons enjoys playing in the engine room with long-time partner Holman-Jones.

“We’re similar sorts of players,” he said. “We both like to get around the park, we carry the ball and we make our tackles.”

They will both be big players for Longlevens – in every sense! – if the club are to realise their dream of winning promotion this season although Lyons insists he is “taking it one game at a time”.

He missed one of the early matches – the game at Ross-on-Wye – when he was on a family holiday in Crete and admits he was more nervous while sitting on a beach some 2,300 miles away than he would have been had he been playing.

“Yes, I was,” he laughed. “Ross had just been promoted so we didn’t know too much about them but the lads convinced me they’d be alright.”

And Lyons certainly didn’t have anything to worry about because Longlevens, who were captained by back row Mark Hancock, romped to a 76-5 win.

And although Lyons wasn’t there in person, he was certainly there in spirit.

“I face-timed one of our supporters, Ethan Hunt, a Gloucester Academy player who was our water boy,” he said. “I was able to watch the last 10 minutes of the game.”

With commitment like that, Longlevens have surely got every chance of winning promotion to Western Counties North this season.