The University of Gloucestershire All Golds are overjoyed at entering a side in the Conference League South in 2016.
The All Golds were accepted into the league earlier this month and have begun to finalise recruitment for the new season, which begins in March.
The side will sit under the All Golds’ Kingstone Press League 1 side and will be managed and funded by the University. The club’s Advisory Board and the University’s Director of Sport will be kept fully informed of progress as the season unfolds.
All Golds’ club President Lionel Hurst said: “We are all delighted and wish to thank the CLS management and clubs for approving our application.
“We have assigned some of our best off field personnel to oversee what is a vital cog in our Performance Pathway.
“It is important to highlight the purpose is binary: to produce professional rugby players and also high quality off field staff from medical to media, coaching to commercial.”
The side will be known as All Golds CLS and the Head Coach will be All Golds and former Super League player Alex Davidson. Davidson is a Masters student and co-coach of the University’s BUCS Premier South team.
It will be a performance side linking to the All Golds’ Kingstone Press League 1 team and Head Coach Lee Greenwood will take an overview as will Performance Co-ordinator Pat Evans.
“This is brilliant for the club, the South West of England area and Rugby League in general”, said Greenwood. “We needed to create a pathway from the community/student game to the 1st team in League 1 and running a team in CLS does this.
“We intend to give youngsters in the area the opportunity to play in a tough open age competition with the long term aim of producing professional players.
“Over the next couple of years we want the whole 1st team squad to be based locally and we hope the CLS squad will provide some of these.”
The team’s playing strength will be drawn from the University of Gloucestershire’s BUCS teams, League 1 side, returning Academy personnel and invited triallists. The side will also have a link to the Gloucestershire Warriors who have applied to play in the West of England league in 2016.
An announcement as to where the side will be based will be made shortly.
The All Golds CLS team would provide an important geographical link between South Wales, Oxford and the Midlands in providing opportunities for players.
