Craig Voisey has played rugby all over the world but he couldn’t be happier at his new ‘home’ in the Cotswolds.

Home for Voisey is Stow-on-the-Wold Rugby Club, a club with a proud history and one that continues to more than hold its own in Southern Counties North.

Voisey joined the club at the start of last season and took over as club captain at the start of the current campaign.

And as rugby club captains go, they don’t come much more experienced than 34-year-old Craig Voisey.

The one-time England Counties, Rotherham and Moseley prop – he can play on either side of the scrum – has played in Kenya, Canada, Uganda, Bahrain, Italy, France and Spain among other countries and enjoyed every minute of it but he insists there is something special about running out for home games with Stow-on-the-Wold.

“In terms of vista, it’s hard to find anything that matches what Oddington Road can offer,” he told The Local Answer.

And it’s not just the setting that appeals to Voisey, who played full-time rugby for about a dozen years.

“It’s a great club and we’ve got some really talented young players coming through,” he added.

And the articulate Voisey is clearly proving a very good role model for that next generation.

“It’s all about them, I’ve had my time,” he said. “I’m happy to play anywhere in the forwards – front row, second row or number eight.

“I’ll play wherever I’m needed, we’ve got such good youngsters, it’s far more important that they play in the positions they want to play.”

Voisey admits that he has plenty to say on the pitch – “I do talk a lot, it was the rugby environment I was brought up in,” he said – but he says he’s not a screamer and shouter.

“I try to encourage the younger players,” he said. “If I see something happening on the pitch I will pass on that information.”

And while clearly a leader, Voisey does not lead out the team on matchdays.

“We share the captaincy around, we give it to quite a few of the younger players,” he explained. “Jim Wood, Elliot Lockey, Ben Collett and Harry Gayden have all captained the side this season.”

They’re all learning from Voisey, who in turn learned his rugby in Bristol back in the day. Gordano was his local club and he was obviously pretty good because at the age of 14 or 15 he was picked up by Bath Academy where he played alongside the likes of Nick Abendanon.

He enjoyed cutting his teeth at Bath Academy. “We had a good team,” he said. “It was tough but it was good fun.”

He also had a brain as well because he went off to Swansea University for three years to study politics while at the same time continuing his rugby education by playing not only for the university but also Bridgend.

From there he went over to Ireland where he played for Belfast Harlequins as well as a few games for Ulster before heading back over the Irish Sea to play for Rotherham and then Moseley.

Both those clubs were in the Championship, a hard, uncompromising division where no quarter is ever asked and certainly none given.

But while it was rough and tough – and it doesn’t get any tougher than in the front row – Voisey had an absolute ball.

“Being a full-time rugby player is a very easy way of life,” he said. “As a professional you are very well looked after, everything is done for you.

“You wake up, eat, go to the gym. You might do a bit of coaching, then you train. Physically it might be hard but it’s not very taxing, there’s a lot of time for coffees!

“The training is intense but you get a lot of time off in the summer, it’s a good way to earn a living.”

Voisey also enjoyed the added bonus of playing for England Counties in Africa, North America and Europe and he admitted that was “something quite special”.

“I really enjoyed that,” he said. “Whatever level you play for England, when they play the national anthem it’s a unique feeling.”

But while playing sport may be a great job it’s not one you can do forever, of course, and that’s probably more true of rugby than most other sports.

And that was certainly the case for Voisey.

“I broke my arm quite severely,” he said. “I broke it three times in the end but when I did it the first time I realised I couldn’t just survive on rugby.”

So he got a part-time job selling water coolers and coffee machines through one of Moseley’s club sponsors and although understandably he still much preferred playing rugby it helped set him up for a life outside rugby.

These days he works for a large schoolwear wholesaler, a job that takes him all over the West Midlands and South Wales.

He lives in Stow – his wife Caroline set up Moreton-in-Marsh Dental some four years ago – and said the decision to move to the glorious Cotswolds was a “no brainer”.

Voisey stopped playing full-time rugby at the age of 31 – “I decided I was done,” he said – and after a spell as player/coach at Stratford turned up for pre-season at Stow just over 18 months ago.

And he immediately liked what he saw.

“It’s a very good club,” he said. “It’s very welcoming and very friendly. There is a good group of people trying to make things happen.

“We’ve got a good clubhouse and we’re trying to make the club the centre of things.”

And what about on the pitch?

“I think we want to be more sustainable,” he said. “We’ve got the talent to go up a level but it’s all about providing a clear pathway for the 15 and 16 year olds into the Colts and into the seniors.

“We need to look after these kids and be able to offer them jobs when they come back from university.”

The evidence suggests that they’re doing a pretty good job because Voisey reckons that all but two of Stow’s first team are homegrown.”

Voisey hopes to be rubbing shoulders with them on the pitch for a while yet but admits his “body isn’t what it was”.

But although he’s obviously got plenty of miles on the clock everyone at the club will be hoping that he can continue wearing the black and white of Stow for a few more years yet.