You get plenty of ‘Where were you?’ moments when significant things happen in sport.

Where were you when England won the Rugby World Cup in 2003, for example, or when Gloucester’s James Simpson-Daniel danced round Jonah Lomu for that try for England against the Barbarians, or when Gareth Edwards scored the greatest try of all time for the Barbarians against the All Blacks close on 50 years ago now?

They were all memorable moments in the great game that is rugby and Tewkesbury’s Matt Stone has a ‘where were you?’ moment of his own, albeit on a slightly different scale.

That’s because the 35-year-old was in Nigeria when he learned he would be captaining Tewkesbury Rugby Club in the 2019/20 season.

“I was working over there when the decision was made at our AGM in June,” said the firefighting instructor. “I found out via our WhatsApp group!”

Not that his appointment came as a total surprise.

“I’d put my name forward and said I’d do it if no-one else wanted to,” said the long-serving outside centre. “But I was more than happy if someone else wanted the job.”

Stone has taken over from the now retired Mike Harper and his experience is going to be important this season after the club’s promotion to Gloucestershire One.

And it’s not only his leadership skills that are going to be needed because Stone is also one of the club’s major players.

The former Tewkesbury School pupil started playing for the club at the age of 22 and has missed only a couple of seasons since his debut campaign.

He reckons he’s scored some 150 tries for Tewkesbury over that period and holds the club record for most tries in the season which stands at 33.

Last season he scored 15 in a campaign that culminated in that winner-takes-all game at Cheltenham Civil Service which Tewkesbury won 33-7 to clinch the Gloucestershire Two North title.

So what sort of player is he?

“If I’ve got a bit of space I’ll back myself,” he said. “But we’ve also got a few planned moves when I cut back and run onto a crash ball. I’m about 16 stone so I’ve got a bit of weight on me and can break through tackles.”

And while he clearly knows his role as a player he admits that his captaincy may be a bit of a work in progress, particularly in the early part of the season.

“I’m not the most vocal of people,” he said. “I’m not an emotional player so I might have to work on my team talks.”

Stone, who started playing for Cheltenham juniors at the age of eight before spending half-a-dozen seasons at Cheltenham Saracens, shouldn’t worry too much about that.

He’s clearly a player who others look up to, someone who leads by example and who never gives up.

And the try he considers to be the best he has scored for the club reflects that never-say-die spirit.

“It was a few years ago, I think it was against Ross-on-Wye,” he said. “We had a penalty kick at goal and I chased it, you always chase a penalty kick.

“The ball came back off the outside of the post and I caught it and scored the try.”

Stone and all of Tewkesbury would love another couple of those this season!