There’s plenty of optimism around Stroud Rugby Club as they look forward to the new season.

They are heading into the 2023/24 campaign with a spring in their step and they’ve got every reason to feel confident.

They’ll be playing in a higher division after last season’s promotion, their Nomads team are up and running again, and the club are celebrating their 150th anniversary.

“We’re rebuilding,” said 31-year-old tighthead prop Tom Allen. “We’ve brought in some younger players, over the past few seasons we’ve built the team around a few senior players and the younger players.”

And it seems to be working because they’ll be playing in Counties 2 Gloucestershire North this season after finishing second to Old Patesians in Counties 3 Gloucestershire North last time out.

“I think this season will be tougher, the standard will go up quite a bit in the new league,” said Allen, who can play in any position across the front row. “But I think we’ll do okay, the age profile of the squad is pretty good.”

It’s been well documented that Stroud have had a tough time in recent years. A player exodus after they won the old Western Counties North in 2019/20 meant they had to drop three divisions, but they have regrouped and are looking upwards once more.

“We’re trying to do it the right way,” continued Allen, who was voted clubperson of the year last season. “We want a club that anyone can join and feel a part of.

“It’s about keeping everyone together and developing everyone together. It’s great that we’re going to be running the Nomads again this season.

“They’ll be playing in the Merit Table which should be a decent level of development rugby. It will give the younger players the chance to play senior rugby, learn the game and enjoy themselves. Ultimately we don’t want too big a gap between the 2nd XV and the 1st XV.”

Allen, a former Wycliffe College and King’s School Gloucester pupil, will be one of the main players for the flagship team again this season.

He played some 18 league games for them last season and, apart from one year spent at Old Pats, has been part of the club for more than 15 years.

“I played for the Pats the season before last,” he said. “It was after Stroud dropped down the divisions, we should have been playing in South West One and I wanted to test myself at that level.”

He described his time at the Pats as “great fun” and said it was a “really enjoyable season” but he is certainly happy to be back playing for a club that he first represented at under-16 level.

He played at school, too, and was obviously pretty good, although he remembers that his senior career with Stroud didn’t get off to the best of starts.

“It was in the 2013/14 season against Newent,” he said. “I got two minutes off the bench and we lost in the last minute. There was a scrum five metres from our line and I gave away a penalty.  I think they scored from the next play, it felt like it was my fault.”

That was a steep learning curve, of course, but one that Allen was able to recover from, so much so that the following season he was a regular in the side that won the Gloucester Premier.

“That was quite a big thing at the time,” recalled Allen.

It certainly was and this year’s 150th anniversary celebrations means that the club will spend a lot of time looking back as well as looking forward.

“Historically, we are one of the biggest sports clubs in the Stroud area,” said Allen. “I think over the years we’ve played and beaten all the teams who are in the Premiership now.

“I think we’re a couple of promotions away from where we want to be, but that is much easier said than done. It’s a long-term project.”

Stroud’s opening league game of the season is at Brockworth on Saturday 2nd September.