Jim Wood epitomises everything that is good about Stow-on-the-Wold Rugby Football Club.

The flanker, who can play openside or blindside, was confirmed as 1^st XV captain at the start of last season and the flagship side have enjoyed great success over the past 18 months or so.

Their success is not all down to him, of course, but he’s certainly playing his part.

For the 25-year-old, it is all about the club, the team – he’s certainly not in it for individual glory.

“I’d rather make a big tackle than score a try,” he told The Local Answer. “I love the contact, I love a tackle.”

A big tackle, particularly one made early in a game, can set the tone for the whole match, of course, and Stow, under the watchful eye of head coach Matt Carter, have been clocking up the wins in recent times.

They won the Southern Counties North title last season along with the Cheltenham Combination Senior Cup and are going well in the newly formed Regional 2 Severn this time around.

Wood is delighted with their form and clearly gives an awful lot to the club, but it’s fair to say that the club have given an awful lot to him too.

“I’ve been with them since the under-6s, under-7s,” said the former Cotswold School pupil. “I loved it straight away. I followed my dad and my older brother, they were my inspiration.

“I played through all the age groups up to under-16s and then went straight into the adults.”

In those days the club weren’t running a Colts team so it was a big jump for the young Wood, even up to the 2^nd XV.

“It was tough back then but the club have progressed so much,” he said. “Now we’ve got a Colts team.

“The under-16s, Colts and adults all train together, it’s all part of the one-club ethos.”

Wood is a key component of the all-for-one and one-for-all culture that has been developed at the club.

His own transition into adult rugby was helped by the fact that when he first started playing for the 2nds his dad Ed, a front row, was captain of the team.

Not that Jim Wood has had it easy, anything but, as anyone who has been involved with the rugby club over the past few years knows.

“My brother Mikey died in a car crash in April 2013,” he said. “He’s a massive source of my inspiration. There’s a plaque in the first-team changing room that says ‘Never Step Back’. It’s got his name on it and it’s what I always try to do on and off the pitch.”

Mikey, a back row, was a month short of his 19^th birthday when he died and he would certainly have been very proud of everything that his younger brother has achieved at Stow Rugby Club, both as a player and as a captain.

So what sort of captain is Jim Wood?

“I’m quite quiet, I try to lead by example,” he said. “I put my body on the line, I’m always at training, I play every game.

“There are quite a few older guys in the team but everyone backs me 100 per cent. I’ve not always been the most confident person but everyone has made it really easy for me to captain.”

So how long does he envisage captaining the side?

“I think I’d like to do another one or two seasons,” he said. “I do enjoy it, but the role does come with a bit of pressure, it’s a big commitment.”

He’ll continue playing for much longer, of course.

“I’ll play for as long as my body lets me,” said Wood, a stonemason. “I love playing for Stow, we’re all really good mates, I think that shows during matches. We have a great time on and off the pitch.

“We’ve got a first-team squad of 35 easily, we get so many coming to training.”

And Wood is also playing his part in nurturing the next generation of players because this season he is coaching Stow Lions under-13s alongside fellow players James Holmes and Will Oughton.

“I’m really enjoying it,” he said. “I was really nervous when I started. I was pretty confident I had the knowledge but I wasn’t a teacher and I’d never done any coaching before.

“It’s not easy to pass on information but I think I’m getting better. The boys seem to enjoy it, I’d underestimated what a big thing it is for them to be coached by senior players at the club.”

And while Wood is obviously giving plenty to them, those youngsters are giving plenty back to him too.

“They come and watch me play on a Saturday,” explained Wood, who lives in Bourton-on-the-Water. “At the end of the game they’ll come up to me and say, ‘Well played Woody’, it’s nice.”

Those youngsters are just part of a growing army of Stow supporters, an army that includes Wood’s mum Sarah Parrott, who has been watching him play in all weathers for the best part of two decades, girlfriend Emma Taylor and gran Hazel Parrott.

“The Stow faithful – wives, girlfriends, friends, parents – have been amazing,” added Wood. “Hardly anyone used to watch us, now we fill the bank at Stow and plenty follow us away, they make lots of noise.”