Gloucester Rugby

Founded	1873
Location	Gloucester, England
Ground(s)	Kingsholm Stadium
Capacity	16,500
Chairman	Tom Walkinshaw
Coach(es)	Bryan Redpath
Captain(s)	Mike Tindall Gareth Delve
League(s)	Guinness Premiership
2008-09	6th
1st kit 2nd kit
Official website
www.gloucesterrugbyclub.com

Gloucester Rugby are a professional English rugby union club situated in the west country city of Gloucester. The club plays in the domestic Guinness Premiership. They also compete in the Anglo-Welsh EDF Energy Cup and the European Rugby Cup competitions.

The team plays out of its home stadium in the district of Kingsholm, just outside Gloucester city centre.

The club has no official nickname but are often referred to as the 'Cherry and Whites' by supporters and the media in reference to the traditional hooped shirts worn by the team.

Gloucester Rugby's fiercest rivals are Bath, Worcester and Bristol with matches between the four sides being referred to as west country derbies. The club was formed in 1873.

[edit] History

[edit] 1873-1971

The club was formed in 1873 after a meeting at the Spread Eagle Hotel with the announcement in the Gloucester Journal: "A football club (as rugby was then called) has been formed in this city - the season's operations begin at the Spa on the first Tuesday in next month." a team was then organised to play the College school which was actually played on the ground of the current Kingsholm.

There were 11 games played during the club's 1876-77 season, the club winning 6, losing 2 and drawing 3. Gloucester Rugby Football Club had a successful run in the coming seasons, playing 15 games in both the 1877-78 and 1878-79 seasons, winning 10, losing 2 and drawing 3 both times. In the 1879-80 season Gloucester RFC played 17 games and lost just two. The following season was less successful, winning six of their 13 fixtures. In the 1882-83 season the team won 11 of their 14 games. The club was playing more fixtures as the decade continued, contesting 20 games in the 1884-85 season, and up to 34 in the 1891-92 season. The club left the Spa after an argument with the cricket club that they were ground sharing with. During the winter the Rugby Club had used a salt mixture to remove frost from the pitch, resulting in the death of the grass on the wicket. Gloucester RFC were no longer welcome at the Spa ground.They then acquired lands from the Castle Grim Estate for £4,000 in 1891 and have resided in this place, known since as Kingsholm.

Gloucester RFC were suspended by the RFU for professionalism as a result of the club recruiting players: the "Shewell case". The club responded by adopting a more puritanical adherence to the amateur regulations, and were reinstated. However when the Northern clubs split from the RFU to form the Northern Rugby Union (later known as the Rugby Football League) a number of Gloucester RFC players "went North".

The 1920-21 season became famous for Gloucester RFC when Fredd Webb skippered the club to 23 matches unbeaten at home at Kingsholm, with only the United Services and Pontypool clubs being able to defeat them at home. Gloucester RFC defeated Newport 12 to 9 in front of 8,000 spectators. The following season was infamous for the number of footballers that were sent from the field by officials, 14 for fighting, seven for arguing, six for language and one for foul play. Leicester actually cancelled their Gloucester RFC fixture because of this. Around the mid 1920s the media began to refer to the club as the 'Red and Whites'.

[edit] 1972-1995

In 1972 Gloucester RFC won the first ever National Knock-Out Competition. Having overcome Bath, Bristol, London Welsh and Coventry (all away from home) in earlier rounds, they beat Moseley in a Twickenham final that was marred by violence and the sending off of Moseley's Nigel Horton. In 1978 Gloucester RFC won the first ever John Player Cup, defeating Leicester in another final noted for violent play both on and off the pitch at Twickenham.

Despite the two cup wins of the 1970s and a shared trophy in 1982, Gloucester RFC were soon to find themselves in the shadow of Bath, the rising force from down the A46.

Bath finished runners-up in the league in 1989, but the disastrous end to the 1989/90 campaign was to be a prelude to lean years. Closing in on English rugby's first 'Double', Gloucester RFC's last-day collapse handed Wasps the league title before a 48-6 cup final heartbreak at the hands of Bath.

By 1992/93 however it was a different story. The players called a crisis meeting with club coach Keith Richardson about the perceived lack of player rewards relative to other comparable clubs. A year later, club chairman Peter Ford restated the club's traditional anti-professionalism: "We play by the rules. .. whatever anybody else does, we'll stick by the rules. If they say we can't pay players, or offer them inducements or cars or flats. .. then we won't do it."

Richard Hill, former tormentor from fierce rivals Bath and Bristol was instilled as Head Coach

The arrival of professionalism to the sport in 1995 would signal a change in direction.

[edit] 1995-present

Professionalism finally came in 1995, but Gloucester RFC was without a major investor, and lost ground in terms of player recruitment and revenue acquisition. But this did not prevent the club from transforming itself into a limited company.

Tom Walkinshaw became the new club owner with a majority shareholding on 29 April 1997. Richard Hill's position would soon be filled by former France captain Philippe Saint-Andre.

In Saint-Andre's first full season, a third-place finish in 1999/2000 took Gloucester into the Heineken Cup. With Phil Vickery, Trevor Woodman and All Blacks legend Ian Jones forming the basis of a formidable pack, Gloucester RFC marched their way to the last four, where only last-ditch Leicester defending would deny them a final appearance.

Saint-Andre's acrimonious departure couldn't stop them winning their first cup triumph in 25 years in 2003, under new coach Nigel Melville.

Unstoppable in the league, Gloucester RFC reached the inaugural Championship final 15 points clear of their nearest rival, however under the new league system Gloucester RFC were 'rewarded' with a 3 week lay-off, while Wasps played regular rugby during the 3 weeks as a result Gloucester RFC lost their momentum and were crushed emphatically by Wasps at Twickenham.

During the next few seasons Gloucester RFC failed to build on the success of the 2002-03 season. Things became worse in the 2004-05 season when they failed to qualify for the Heineken Cup. Nigel Melville left the club and was replaced by Dean Ryan for the 2005-06 season.

The 2005-06 season was an improvement in the clubs fortunes, although they did not qualify for the play-offs, they were strong contenders and lost out on the last day of the regular season. They also won silverware in the European Challenge Cup, defeating London Irish in a tense final that went into extra time. This season was also a glimpse of the incredible talent Gloucester RFC were bringing up from their academy.

Gloucester Rugby finished 1st in the 2006/2007 Guinness Premiership table, both Leicester and Gloucester Rugby tied with 71 points, Gloucester Rugby gaining first place with more games won, they also demonstrated their level of skill and vision in the Heineken Cup, against sides such as Leinster and Edinburgh despite not progressing past the group stage, Gloucester Rugby defeated the Saracens in the semi-final at Kingsholm, 50-9, to move into the Twickenham final where they faced Leicester Tigers. However, Gloucester Rugby were beaten heavily by the Tigers with the final score being 44-16, Gloucester Rugby again being defeated by the play-off system.

Gloucester Rugby began the 2007/08 Guinness premiership campaign as favourites, and started the season strongly winning their first five games before defeat away to London Irish. Dean Ryan's main focus for the 2007/08 season was for Gloucester to establish themselves in Europe, but despite coming top of their group they lost to Munster in the Quarter Final. After the Heineken Cup exit Gloucester overcame their poor mid-season form with a series of victories capping it off with their first away win against Wasps for 18 years, and then defeating Bath in an intense encounter at Kingsholm to win the league for the second year running, and book a home semi-final in the Championship Play-off against Leicester Tigers in a repeat of last seasons Championship final.

The result was the same, although a closer affair. The Tigers won 25-26 courtesy of an Andy Goode drop goal 3 minutes from time but Gloucester had seemed in control. They led 12-3 at half-time and 22-13 at one point in the second half. However, a sliced box kick from Gloucester fly-half Ryan Lamb (on his birthday), followed by a catastrophic error by Iain Balshaw who passed metres behind Willie Walker, allowed Leicester's former All-Black Aaron Mauger to score under the posts and close the gap to 22-20. An Andy Goode penalty gave them the lead and a drop goal for each team in the last ten minutes (in which Lamb also missed a penalty) meant that the Leicester Tigers became the first team in premiership history to win a semi-final away from home, and once again left Gloucester's fans heart-broken.

After failing to qualify for the play-off's in 2008/09 and defeat to Cardiff in the EDF Energy Cup Final at Twickenham, Gloucester announced on 11 June 2009 that Dean Ryan had left the club by mutual consent. He will be replaced by assistant Bryan Redpath.^[1]

[edit] Premier league Positions

[edit] Stadium

Gloucester Rugby play their homes matches at Kingsholm Stadium.

The club left the Spa for Kingsholm when it bought an area of the Castle Grim Estate for £4,000 in 1891.

A main grandstand was erected in 1926 at a cost of £2,500, containing 1,750 seats. However six years later it would be destroyed by fire. There were plans proposed to increase the capacity of the stadium to 20,000, with seating for 7,000. It remained just that , a proposal, although the grandstand was replaced.

Gloucester Rugby opened the "sixpenny" stand, which would later become known as the Shed, in 1891. Kingsholm's capacity was further increased to 20,000 in the 1930s when a grandstand was added to the stadium.

Like the clubs of the Welsh mining valleys, Gloucester Rugby traditionally drew its support and its playing strength from local working-class communities. The Shed, so-called because it looks like a cow shed, dates back to the 1950s. Gloucester Rugby's fanzine refers to it as 'the cauldron of fear'. The Shed is standing-only terracing that runs continuously down one touchline, opposite the point where visiting teams emerge from the dressing rooms. Its low tin roof amplifies the effect of a passionate support which has been mentioned by commentators sitting above it during live broadcasts.

In 2006, the club announced it would be making an extension to Kingsholm, bringing the stadium capacity up to 17,000, to cope with higher levels of spectators. It was also to comply with Premier Rugby's minimum seat number requirements. The old main stand was later replaced by a new all seater structure.

In January 2007, the club announced that it plans to redevelop The Shed. This is to enable the stadium to become all-seating. A large amount of supporters do not want to see this happen, and a campaign under the banner of "Save Our Shed" or "SOS" was begun. Posters were held up during a protest before one game and t-shirts were made with the slogan Save Our Shed on them.

A suggested compromise is for the club to replicate the design of Northampton RFC’s ground, Franklin's Gardens, where terracing runs in conjunction with a large seated area. In September 2008, chairman Tom Wilkinshaw confirmed that the plans for the Shed would see it remain as a terrace (with an increased capacity of 6000), with hospitality units above it^[2].

2007 also saw the club reject the proposal of a new 20,000 all seater stadium in an area of the city nicknamed "The Railway Triangle". This was to be shared with the local football side. Kingsholm was also suggested in October 2007 as a possible temporary home for Gloucester City A.F.C. after their stadium Meadow Park was flooded and then abandoned following the summer floods, however this move was rejected by owner Tom Walkinshaw.

[edit] Modernisation

At the start of the 2005 season, the club chairman Tom Walkinshaw began several changes to modernise the club in order to keep up with rugby's rapidly advancing professionalism, whilst the majority of fans support the need to modernise the club some fans are concerned that the club is losing touch with its heritage and traditions. 'Gloucester Rugby Football Club' has now been renamed as 'Gloucester Rugby' and, due to copyright issues, no longer use Gloucester City's Coat of Arms as the clubs crest (as the crest didn't belong to the club, and as such with no copyright, unofficial merchandise was freely available).

[edit] Colours

Gloucester Rugby's traditional colours.

The famous cherry and white hooped jersey did not originally belong to the club. Painswick RFC, based in Gloucestershire and the oldest village club, are the original 'Cherry and Whites' (although they didn't use the nickname). According to local legend at the clubs first meeting it was decided that the clubs uniform was to be entirely navy blue, yet on an away trip they realised they had forgotten to bring sufficient Navy strip for the entire team, leaving behind a kit bag full of shirts, Travelling en route through Painswick, they stopped off at the local rugby club and asked to borrow a strip. Painswick RFC loaned them 15 of their cherry and white jerseys, the Gloucester side went on to win the away fixture and failed to return the shirts to Painswick, adopting the colours as their own. In 2003, to celebrate Gloucester RFC's 130th anniversary, Gloucester RFC returned the favour and donated Painswick RFC an entire new set of first team colours.

The club's new jerseys no longer feature the cherry-and-white hoops, instead featuring a largely red shirt with white sleeves and blue-and-white strips down the sides, nor does the new kit include the traditional navy blue shorts and socks, with the new kit becoming all red. On the release of this New Jersey there was a large amount of disappointment in Gloucester Rugby's decision to move away from the hooped design, a design generally associated with traditional rugby shirts, as this was a dramatic move away from the classic Gloucester Rugby design. However the majority of fans have now accepted the new design. After the new Gloucester Rugby shirt was released Cotton Traders, who supplied Gloucester Rugby Jerseys prior to the 2007-08 season, released a classic plain cherry and white hooped Gloucester Rugby jersey, albeit an unofficial jersey which is not associated with the club, in addition many of the Public Houses in the Kingsholm area also began selling shirts with the classic hoops, although these shirts do not display the name 'Gloucester Rugby', due to copyright, and instead use the title 'Cherry and Whites' under the Gloucester city coat of arms, as such many of the fans who disapproved of the new original design were able to purchase this classic design instead.

Many fans have commented on the irony that whilst the new crest and shirt design were originally designed in order to prevent unofficial merchandise, they have in fact increased the number of fans turning to unofficial shirts. In response to this, Gloucester Rugby released its own, official, shirt displaying the classic hooped design with the new club crest above the date of the clubs inception '1873'.

[edit] Nickname

Throughout Gloucester Rugby's history the club has never had an official nickname, the first unofficial nicknames for the club were 'the elver eaters' and 'the city', although that name is a distant memory mused over by the club's oldest and longest supporters, the classic 'cherry and whites' nickname, which has become synonymous with the club, was created by the media in reference to the club's colours. The media first referenced the club colours around the 1950s as the "red and whites" and continued to use this nickname well into the 1960s before changing to the "cherry and whites". However, this has never been adopted by the club's fans, who continue to refer to the team simply as Gloucester. As recently as 2004 the club unofficially supported the nickname and even used it in merchandising and advertising campaigns such as 'the future's bright, the future's cherry and white'.

However, in a sudden u-turn, in 2005 the club declared that it wished to disassociate itself from the cherry and white nickname. Suggesting, amongst other reasons, that the club wished a more intimidating nickname be used, rumours suggested that the club was in favour of re-branding as the 'Gloucester Lions', although this was never confirmed. In response to the rumours the Kingsholm Supporters Mutual (KSM), a supporters' group set up by the club in 2003, stated they were 'concerned' with the suggested changes declaring that the name 'cherry and whites' was synonymous with the club. Other fan suggested nicknames such as the "meteors' or 'javelins' in reference to the city's aviation links were met with similar negative responses. 'Old Spots' was also discussed at some length.

The issue of the club's nickname has created split opinions amongst it supporters. There are some who would like to see the 'cherry and whites' nickname made official and who see the club suggesting that a colour isn't intimidating as ludicrous, pointing out that probably the most intimidating team in the world are the New Zealand All Blacks, who don't seem to find having a colour nickname crippling. Many fans don't see the need of having an official nickname and are happy to simply use 'Gloucester', but regardless of the club's official nickname the majority of fans in general have, at the very least, a fond affection for the 'cherry and whites'.

The media continues to refer to Gloucester Rugby as the 'cherry and whites' and the club itself has said no more over a possible name change, while the 'cherry and whites' nickname is likely to never become official and fans in general are happy to use the name Gloucester anyway.

[edit] Current Standings

[edit] Current squad

Nat. Position Player HK Olivier Azam HK Darren Dawidiuk HK Scott Lawson HK Ben Phillips PR Pierre Capdevielle PR Alasdair Dickinson PR Paul Doran-Jones PR Rupert Harden PR Greg Somerville PR Yann Thomas PR Nick Wood LK Dave Attwood LK Marco Bortolami LK Alex Brown LK Adam Eustace LK Will James FL Jake Boer FL Peter Buxton FL Andy Hazell FL Akapusi Qera FL Apolosi Satala FL Alasdair Strokosch

Nat. Position Player N8 Gareth Delve (c) N8 Luke Narraway N8 Dan Williams SH Rory Lawson SH Dave Lewis SH Jordi Pasqualin FH Tristan Roberts FH Nicky Robinson FH Carlos Spencer CE Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu CE Tim Molenaar CE Mike Tindall (c) CE Henry Trinder WG Charlie Sharples WG James Simpson-Daniel WG Lesley Vainikolo WG Tom Voyce FB Freddie Burns FB Olly Morgan

[edit] Ins and Outs for 2009/10 Season

After another trophy-less season Dean Ryan came under prolonged pressure and as a consequence a mass clear out occurred leading to a very 'new-look' Gloucester side, replacing many of the club's academy stars such as Anthony Allen and Ryan Lamb. Seru Rabeni was signed to join from Leicester Tigers but failed a medical.^[3]

In Dave Attwood (Bristol Rugby), Pierre Capdevielle (Brive), Darren Dawidiuk (Cornish Pirates), Paul Doran-Jones (London Welsh), Eliota Fuimaono (Bath), Rupert Harden (Tynedale), Tim Molenaar (Nottingham), Nicky Robinson (Cardiff Blues), Tom Voyce (London Wasps), Jake Boer (South Africa), Ben Phillips (Birmingham & Solihull R.F.C.)

Out Jack Adams (Bristol), Anthony Allen (Leicester Tigers), Iain Balshaw (Biarritz Olympique), Olly Barkley (Bath), Gareth Cooper (Cardiff Blues), Mark Foster (Exeter Chiefs), Jack Forster (Sale Sharks), Ryan Lamb (London Irish), Ross McMillan (Coventry), Carlos Nieto (Saracens), Dan Norton (Bristol), Willie Walker (Worcester Warriors), Matthew Watkins (Newport Gwent Dragons), Dave Young (Edinburgh)

[edit] Current England Elite Squad

• Olly Morgan
• Mike Tindall

[edit] Current England Saxons Squad

• Luke Narraway
• Nick Wood

[edit] Internationally Capped Players

• Alex Brown
• Andy Hazell
• Olly Morgan
• Luke Narraway
• James Simpson-Daniel
• Mike Tindall
• Lesley Vainikolo
• Tom Voyce
• Olivier Azam
• Akapusi Qera
• Apolosi Satala
• Marco Bortolami
• Greg Somerville
• Carlos Spencer
• Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu
• Alasdair Dickinson
• Rory Lawson
• Scott Lawson
• Alasdair Strokosch
• Gareth Delve
• Will James
• Nicky Robinson

[edit] Notable Former Players

• Phil Blakeway
• Steve Boyle
• Gareth Cooper
• Mefin Davies
• James Forrester
• Andy Gomarsall
• Byron Hayward
• Ian Jones
• Kingsley Jones
• Ludovic Mercier
• Steve Mills
• Henry Paul
• Rodrigo Roncero
• Don Rutherford
• Philippe Saint-André
• Mike Teague
• Phil Vickery
• Trevor Woodman
• Terry Fanolua

[edit] Club honours

• Premiership Regular Season Winners = 2002-03, 2006-07, 2007-08.
• League runners-up = 1988-89, 1989-90, 2002-03, 2006-07.
• National Merit Table 'A' winners = 1985-86.
• Zurich Championship winners = 2001-02.
• Cup winners = 1971-72, 1977-78, 1981-82 (shared), 2002-03.
• Cup runners-up = 1989-90.
• C&G League Cup winners = 1997-98, 1998-99.
• Middlesex 7s winners = 2005.
• European Challenge Cup winners = 2005-06.

[edit] Sources

[edit] External links

• Official site
• Independent Gloucester Rugby news
• Crouch and Hold Rugby Interactive Coaching, Training Videos, and more
• Live streaming commentary on all games and lots more from BBC Gloucestershire
• Weekly video interviews with players and management
• Gloucester Rugby on Rugby15