Championship expansion update

The club is owned and backed by the University of Gloucestershire, but will not be a student team. It will be a semi-pro Championship One club like all the others, operating to a business plan approved by the RFL. The expansion clubs are getting funding in line with the other Champ One clubs, which the existing clubs saw and signed off last year.

The club is named after the New Zealand All Golds, who won the first international test series by beating the Northern Union in Cheltenham in 1908. The club will wear a Golden fern as their emblem, with the approval of the NZRL.

UG has invested time and resources to an impressive degree over the last few years. One of their strengths is that as a university they are very strong in Sports Science and Sports Coaching qualifications. They already have in place a formidable structure for S&C, Analysis, and Physiotheraphy, where by a postgrad or academic leads a team of six undergraduates, who as a part of their degree have to complete live placements with a pro-standard club. This team of 21 backroom staff working on the conditioning and performance of the players is far stronger than most SL clubs, never mind C1 clubs.

In addition to a Rugby League Community Coach, who they have part-funded, the Uni also has a number of Sport Coaching degree students who do community RL coaching as a part of their courses, and various business, events management and marketing students, who have contributed to the running and administration of the club and its events, again as a part of their academic programmes.

The Student club has approximately 10 hours contact time per week with its players, plus matches. The pro club will be different, because many/most will have other jobs (although of course students wanting to play semi-pro RL won't find a better place to study!)

The venue is yet to be announced, although the student team has played at the Prince of Wales stadium in Cheltenham... not unlike London Skolars ground... for the last few years (under lights). Their SRL fixtures attract crowds of around 100.

Gloucestershire Warriors Community team run 2 teams. All Golds are already running U18, U16 and U14 teams, largely through volunteers and students under guidance from the Community Coach. Gloucestershire schools have been playing RL since 2008, so there are a cohort coming through at 16 now who have been playing to some degree for 4 years, and the u18s have been playing as long. St Peter's School, one of the leading rugby union schools in the country and a past Daily Mail Cup winner (champ schools for union), has partnered with the RL locally to become a dual-code school, committed to RL from February-July across all ages and both genders.

In addition, the Filton College (now renamed South Glos and Stroud College) Academy is about 30 miles away north of Bristol. They run a 16-19 Academy programme, and have been playing into the universities leagues (all 18+, obviously) in this, their first season. They still managed to win the SRL Plate competition, beating Newcastle Uni 2 in the final in Leeds. Bristol has its own network of Schools RL, and a Community Junior leagu at u14 and u16.

Cheltenham & Gloucester sit either side of the M5, like Derby and Nottingham or Sheffield and Rotherham on the M1. They are effectively the same conerbation. The combined population is about 250,000, so similar to Warrington or Wigan. Gloucester Rugby are a union giant, and regularly attract 10,000+ to Kingsholme. In fact it's said you can kick a ball from one pitch to the next and go all around the city... there are around 17 union clubs in Gloucester, most putting out at least 2 teams, and at least half of which run juniors. The Union players and fans in Gloucester are NOT like union fans in the north... it is genuinely the working man (and women's) game. There's also Hartpury College just up the road, who play union in the national leagues. There is no shortage of support or talent for oval-ball collision sports. To what extent League can tap into that remains to be seen. Cheltenham, meanwhile, has a Football league pro soccer team, with its own fanbase of a couple of thousand. There's a proven market for spectator sport on a football field.

Bristol is 40 miles south, Worcester is 30 miles north, Swindon is 40 miles west. All have small, but pretty keen, RL populations. Cheltenham is about 2 hours from Warrington... a similar distance as Whitehaven to Leeds, but quicker because it's all motorway. It's also a really nice place to stay (Gloucester has it's moments, but is a bit rough!).

There was a bid from Bristol, and Bristol Sonics are still in conversation with the RFL about their longer term plans. Some of the potential partners in a Bristol Bid are now working into the Gloucestershire club. The backing of the university was decisive in bringing that about. Bristol has a population of 430,000, a World Cup game, a National league team, the Academy at SGS, junior community teams, and 2 universities that play. But Sonics have only just stepped up to national level, and are keen to develop at their own pace. They don't have either the same infrastructure or financial resources as UG, amd doubtless the westcountry clubs will look forward to professional derby matches in the future, when the timing is right all round.

UG will debut in the pro nines series at the end of the month. No idea what the situation will be regarding the student players who are already on pro contracts (at Scorpions, there are three of them). Looking ahead, and even now, there are SW players on the books at Featherstone and Scorpions, a few more being looked at by SL and Champ clubs over summer once term ends, and others playing just below with Conference teams.

It is, at very least, a robust and exciting development, and at best has the prospect of founding a great club in a new RL 'traditional' area.... one that goes back over a century.