The cheers will be heard all round the North Cotswolds when Arthur Clark makes his England debut on Saturday (10.05pm BST).

The one-time Stow-on-the-Wold junior and current Gloucester second row starts against the USA in Washington and there is much delight in this part of the world.

“I messaged him when I heard the news, as you can imagine he was over the moon,” said Mark Ingham, who coached him when he was a junior at Stow.

“It’s just amazing, absolutely amazing, I’m so pleased for him. It’s been coming for a while, he’s been around the England squad.”

The 23-year-old was called up to the senior England squad ahead of the opening Six Nations game against Ireland this year and Ingham continued: “It couldn’t happen to a nicer bloke, he’s such a nice down-to-earth character.

“He’s put the hard work in – he’s always been a hard worker – and I always thought he had a chance.

“He’s got shoulders like a barn door, he’s got all the physical attributes. Physically and mentally he’s very good.”

The former Chipping Campden School pupil is 6ft 7in and weighs around 19-stone and Ingham remembers he was always big for his age.

His dad Barry played in the back row for Gloucester back in the 1980s – he also played for Stow – and 54-year-old Ingham, a hooker, said: “Barry was still playing in Stow’s first team when I started playing for the club in the early 2000s, Arthur was just a baby.

“Arthur started playing for the juniors when he was about 11, he soon made an impression, he was a big lad even then.

“He was more than handy on a rugby pitch, he quite fancied himself as a no 8 back then.

“He was also forever pestering me to play in the backs. He wasn’t slow although there were others quicker than him.

“I used to give him a few minutes in the centre, my coaching philosophy was that the number on your shirt was the starting point, the rest of the time you just played rugby – tackle, pass, run.”

Ingham’s son James, a fly-half, played in the same side as Clark.

“I started coaching the year group at under-6, I took them all the way through to Colts,” said Ingham.

Clark, a former student at Hartpury College, played with Stow through to under-16s by which time he was part of Gloucester’s academy.

But he remains a familiar face around Stow Rugby Club.

“Last season he would come and coach us on Tuesday evenings whenever he could,” said Ingham, who still plays regularly for the 2^nd XV.

“It’s come full circle because I used to coach him and now he coaches me!”

Clark will become the first former Stow player to start a full England game on Saturday. Winger Ollie Thorley’s one cap came as a second-half replacement against Italy in 2020 and Ingham said of Clark’s call-up: “It’s a great story for Stow.” 

Meanwhile, Clark’s Gloucester team-mate Charlie Atkinson, a fly-half, is on the bench on Saturday, while centre Seb Atkinson, another Kingsholm favourite in the England squad, won his first cap when he started against Argentina earlier this month.