Harry Piercy is one of the new breed of young players making a big impression at Stow-on-the-Wold Rugby Club.

The 18-year-old tighthead prop has forced his way into the first team this season as the club lock horns with the likes of Longlevens, Old Centralians and Drybrook in South West Regional 2 Severn.

There are other youngsters who are coming through, of course, but what makes Piercy’s story particularly interesting is that he has come into a side that includes his stepdad Andrew.

And what’s more, Andrew is also a prop. Andrew can play tighthead or loosehead, but for obvious reasons has been more than happy to play loosehead over the past few months.

“He introduced me to rugby when I was six,” said Harry, who lives in Cheltenham. “I’d been playing football for Charlton Rovers and he said, ‘Do you want to come and try some rugby?’

“I was dragged along at first, but I soon started to enjoy it and I’ve been at Stow ever since.”

It helped that from an early age rugby was clearly something the young Piercy was quite good at.

“I was captain all the way through while I was at Pittville School,” he said. “I also played when I moved to Cotswold School.”

Piercy was originally a number 8 but he says he prefers playing in the front row.

“You don’t have to run as much,” he laughed. “You also get a bit of a breather before the scrum sets up.”

Mind you, when you play in the front row you need that breather.

“The scrum is high intensity for quite a few seconds,” he added.

That’s something Piercy was prepared for when he got his first-team chance at the end of last season in the Papa John’s Cup.

It was a home game against Lichfield and it was a game Stow won.

Piercy was still young enough to play for the Colts at the time and although he had played the odd game for the 2^nd XV, playing against Lichfield was another step up.

But he obviously made an impression because just a few months later he made his league debut at Trowbridge.

It was a game Stow lost 28-19 but Piercy, who is 6ft and weighs 110 kilos, has remained very much in the first-team picture and he says he loves playing alongside Andrew, a former club captain.

“It’s good, it’s fun, I know he’s always got my back,” he said. “We work well together, there’s that father/son bond.

“I’m not as heavy as him but we understand when to push and the intensity of the push.

“When we get a scrum we know whether we can go for it, whether we can gun it.”

Harry and Andrew, who play either side of hooker Jake Collett, actually played their first game together for the 2^nd XV in a friendly against Cheltenham North last season.

Harry went on as a replacement and they played 10 minutes together, although it would have been longer had Andrew not been shown a yellow card.

“That was classic,” laughed Harry. “That was so classic of him to get a yellow!”

Andrew has been playing for Stow as man and boy for more than 30 years – his dad Neil is club president – and Harry, who went on as a replacement back row for Gloucestershire Under-20s in their win over Cornwall at Stow at the end of last season, is certainly just as committed to the club even though he will miss the second half of the campaign.

“I’m going travelling after Christmas,” he explained. “I’m on a gap year, I’m going to South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand.”

When he returns he’s going to Cardiff University to study civil engineering but he insists Stow will always be his club.

“I’ll never change my club,” he said.

But will he get to play with Andrew again?

“He’s been saying it’s his last season for the past three seasons,” Harry said. “I still think he’s got another two seasons left in him.”