So far, so very good for Smiths Rugby Club following the launch of their minis and juniors section at the start of the season.

It is the first time that the club, who play their home games at the Prince of Wales Stadium, have had a youth set-up in their 74-year history and they are delighted with the way things are going.

“We’re really happy,” said Dave Cole, who is chairman of the minis and juniors. “We’ve got more than 40 lads signed up for the under-15s and we’ve also started the Smiths Tag Trojans which is for youngsters aged four to nine.”

The under-15s, under the watchful eye of head coach Duncan Simpson and his team of Sam Cook, Luke Harding, Andy Tiplady and Jamie Short, are playing in Gloucestershire Under-15 League A against the likes of Coney Hill, Brockworth and Stroud.

They’ve won two and lost two in the division so far and Cole, who played for Smiths for 25 years, added: “They’re playing really well, they’ve had some close games.”

Those under-15s will become under-16s next season, of course, and Cole said the plan was to introduce another under-15 side in 2026/27.

“We want to build from the bottom up,” he continued. “We’ve had to get a lot of things in place to get to where we are and the feedback we have been getting from the players and the parents has been brilliant.

“We’ve got great facilities, the stadium pitch is fantastic and we’ve got great people at the club.”

And those people are ambitious.

“We’ve got quite an aggressive development plan,” said Cole. “We want to go into the schools, we want to build up the minis and juniors section.”