New season, new division, new challenges for Dursley Rugby Club.

Their all-conquering men’s flagship team swept everything before them last time out, winning Gloucestershire One South with a perfect playing record of played 20, won 20, and they’re fit and raring to go again as they prepare for life at a higher level.

Following the RFU’s wide-ranging reconstruction of the leagues they’ll be competing in the new-look Counties 2 Gloucestershire South, a 12-strong division which will include the likes of Berry Hill, Bristol Saracens and Old Elizabethans.

And club chairman Phil Sprague, who took over from Simon Bilous midway through last season, can’t wait for the new campaign to start.

“I think the reconstruction of the league will actually help us,” he told The Local Answer. “Four of the teams who were in the same division as us last season are in the new division so it’s not like we’re going into the unknown.

“It will be easier for the coaches to plan for those matches because we’ll know their style of play.”

Bream, St Mary’s Old Boys, Lydney 2nds and Whitehall will all be moving up to Counties 2 Gloucestershire South alongside Dursley with Sprague adding: “We’ve had some cracking good fixtures with Bream, and St Mary’s is always a good fixture, they are a lovely bunch of people.”

It will be Level 8 as opposed to Level 9 and with Clifton 2nds, Dings Crusaders 2nds, Drybrook 2nds and Frampton Cotterell making up the division, Dursley will have to go some to match last season’s achievements.

“Our aim as always will be to go into every game to win it,” said Sprague. “You don’t go into a game to lose it. But realistically, if we can be very competitive in all of our fixtures that would be a positive for the season.”

And while winning is important, it’s not the be-all and end-all for Sprague, who coached the 1st XV for a while a number of years ago.

“It’s about the long-term development of people and players… and having fun, that’s the ethos of Dursley Rugby Club, it’s very important,” said Sprague.

“At the end of the day we play rugby for fun. We’ve got an awful lot of youngsters coming through our youth set-up and into the senior set-up and it’s vital that we get their progression right.

“That’s how you improve the club because you retain people if they enjoy it.”

That youth set-up is another of the success stories at Dursley because Sprague reckons the club have some 300 youngsters from the minnows – that’s under-5s – all the way up to under-18s.

“We want more kids to play rugby, well, any sport really, but I’m chairman of Dursley Rugby Club so I obviously want them to play rugby,” he said.

“But it’s not just the rugby; it’s the camaraderie, the mates they make will be friends for life.”

Anyone who has played any team sport will know that Sprague is spot on, of course, and while Dursley Rugby Club are clearly on a big upward curve, there is one area that Sprague wants to improve this season.

“One of the things we struggled with last season was getting the 3rd XV back together again,” he explained. “Pre-Covid we played eight or 10 games a season and then the end-of-season Stroud Combination cup games.

“Last season we only managed the cup games. The 3rds were mainly made up of Colts and vets – the young lads provided a bit of pace and the vets were the wise old heads, mainly in the forwards.

“It also strengthens the 2nd XV because they have players they can bring in who have been playing reasonably regularly.”

The 2nd XV will again compete in Bristol and District 1 Merit Table where they will play against teams from Bristol Saracens, Chipping Sodbury, Chepstow and Wotton.

“It’s a nice little league,” said Sprague. “They are good fixtures and it’s a competitive league. We were offered the opportunity to join the national leagues like Clifton 2nds and Dings Crusaders 2nds but we think the Merit Table is right for us.”

But while the men’s 2nds are staying put, the women’s team are on the move this season because they will be competing in Women’s South West North as opposed to South West Central in 2021/22.

“The women’s leagues have been reorganised as well,” said Sprague. “They will now be playing teams like Witney, Tewkesbury and Hucclecote whereas last season they basically played Bristol clubs.

“Last season was brilliant for them. I like to say they finished equal third in their division but they actually came fourth.

“They have a great time and they’re going from strength to strength. Every time I see them they seem to have another couple of players.

“They are a big part of the rugby club and they bring more than just their rugby, they bring a completely different atmosphere, it’s brilliant.”

Sprague knows what he’s talking about, of course, having been involved with the club since the mid-1990s when his three children – two boys and a girl – first started playing junior rugby.

“My younger boy, Andrew, was in the same age group as Ben Morgan and I started coaching them from the age of nine or 10,” Sprague said. “I coached Ben all the way up to the Colts.

“I also coached Charlie Sharples for a couple of years when he was around 13, 14 or 15 before he went to Gloucester Academy.”

Morgan and Sharples went on to play for both Gloucester and England, something that is a source of great pride for Dursley.

Another source of great pride is the role that Dursley Rugby Club continue to play in the community.

“Simon Bilous was an excellent chairman,” Sprague said. “The club is so well organised, I’ve just got to continue doing what he did.”

And while Dursley are thriving, Sprague also pays tribute to those helping them along the way.

“We’ve got some very good rugby-playing schools in the area,” he said, “Rednock and Katherine Lady Berkeley, that’s a big help.

“Some of our lads go to Marling and Crypt so they’re getting a rugby education as well. And if they bring some of their school mates down to Dursley it all helps.”

And while you might think that this is all about the youth, Sprague says: “We also have started a walking rugby team for those eternal youngsters that just can’t stop, we can now cater for under-5s up to 85s!”