Rich Planchant is a young man making a big impression as a rugby coach.

The 31-year-old is in his first season as the main man at Chosen Hill and has played a key role as the club look to return to Western Counties North.

To those in the know, it’s no surprise that Planchant has made such an impact as head coach at the Gloucestershire Premier high-fliers because he has enjoyed success as a coach at various levels for a good while now.

He is relatively young but that has certainly not been a hindrance after starting his coaching career early when injury forced him to give up playing at the age of 22.

And it wasn’t just any old injury that forced him off the park because he fractured his neck when making a tackle and despite trying to make a comeback he knew after a couple of games it wasn’t going to happen.

Fortunately, he was not lost to the game and it’s apparent it was always likely that he was going to get into coaching.

That’s because his dad Steve was a coach back in the day and Planchant junior remembers being involved in the game from a very early age.

“He was a coach at Old Cents and Chosen Hill, and I tagged along,” recalled Planchant, who moved East over the Severn Bridge to Longlevens with his family when he was aged two. “I started playing when I was under-6.”

Planchant, who became a blindside flanker when he was older, played some junior rugby at Longlevens, but also played for Chosen Hill School before playing all his senior rugby there.

After his injury, he started coaching some of the age group sides at Chosen Hill and it was soon obvious that he was pretty good because he went on to coach Gloucestershire at under-16 and under-20 level.

He’s also coached South West England Under-18s and at the Gloucester Academy and is currently in his third season as head coach of Gloucestershire’s under-20s.

His dad was also involved with the county’s under-20s – he was assistant coach when they won the county championship in 2008, 2009 and 2011.

Planchant junior has steered the county to the quarterfinals and the semi-finals of the same competition and it goes without saying that he would love to match the achievements of his dad over the next couple of years or so.

But while he has plenty of experience as a coach in age group rugby Planchant junior was also impressing in the senior men’s game during a five-year spell as coach of Cinderford United.

“That was a great place to learn,” he said. “I learned a lot from Paul [Morris], Stan [Andrew Stanley] and Clive [Stuart-Smith].”

It also meant he found himself coaching players who were older than himself which can present some obvious difficulties.

“Yes, it can be challenging,” he said. “But I believe it’s how you get your message across, I’m there to help players and to improve them.

“I work hard, and I try to keep myself up to date with all the latest ideas across all sports.

“I like to try to play an expansive game. I want the ball carriers to have options and I trust my players to make the right decisions.”

And the players at Chosen Hill have certainly been making the right decisions this season which means that the framework that Planchant and his assistant Mark Peacey have put in place is clearly a good one.

But Planchant is keen for the players to take the credit.

“They are the ones who have done all the hard work, “he said. “We try to give them as many tools as possible so that they can perform but they’ve bought into it.

“So far, so good. We’ve had some really good wins but for 50 or 60 minutes the other teams have often been in the game, it’s our fitness and accuracy that has been decisive in the closing stages.”

Planchant is big on fitness and clearly it is having the desired impact even though he admits “you do get a few grumbles”.

“We’re driven to be the best we can be,” Planchant continued. “We’re trying to push on and the next league is a real tough league to get out of, you’re up against some big packs.”

Planchant is ambitious both for his club and for himself.

“I’ve got a lot of roots in this club,” he said. “I hope to be around for quite a while, they are good people.

“But I want to keep pushing on. I’m always pushing myself; I left the South West job because I wanted to be a head coach.”

He admits that he misses playing.

“I’d swap all the coaching to play again,” he said, “but I don’t have any regrets. In fact, I think what happened to me has helped to make me a better coach.”

And the evidence would suggest that he’s absolutely spot on!