Today sees the launch of the Gloucester Rugby Heritage web site – www.gloucesterrugbyheritage.org.uk

Gloucester Rugby is rightly proud of its long heritage, and with the Gloucester Rugby Community Heritage Project the club is leading the way for others.

The foundations of the project lie in the demolition of the old South Stand, which revealed a goldmine of old photographs, papers and other memorabilia.

Saved from the skip by Gloucester Rugby Club Community Marketing Manager, Gary Little, 31 boxes of material were welcomed enthusiastically by Gloucestershire Archives.

Thanks to their efforts, financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund and volunteers from the Friends of Gloucestershire Archives, the project has been working to make this wealth of historical information available to the public.

There is far more to the project than a web site. Alongside the displays in the C&G Grandstand at Kingsholm, the focus will soon turn to delivering educational packages to local schools.

Early news dates from the birth of the club, and covers the move from the Spa to Kingsholm, the first international in 1900 and the dramatic burning down of the grandstand in 1933.

Player profiles include the likes of Tommy Bagwell, Whacker Smith, Bumps Carpenter, Tom Voyce, Kit Tanner, Digger Morris, Peter Butler, Mike Teague and Phil Vickery.

A timeline traces the highlights – and occasional lowlights – of the club’s long history, and there are enough old match programmes and match results to satisfy the most ardent fan’s desire for details and statistics.

The site also includes some of the cartoons that appeared in The Citizen in the 1920s, a trivia section and audio clips of interviews with players past and present.

Both were originally selected to start last Friday but were late withdrawals before the game and Morgan takes up his usual full back spot.

However, Simpson-Daniel has to come into the centre with Henry Trinder suffering a dead leg, Mike Tindall still sidelined and Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu away with Samoa.

In a further backline change, Tom Voyce moves from fullback to the wing with Lesley Vainikolo dropping to the bench.

The pack that started against Leicester remains unchanged although Scott Lawson and Akapusi Qera have returned from international duty and are named amongst the replacements as is Welsh international fly half Nicky Robinson who also had to miss out last Friday.

Harlequins currently sit in 10th place in the Guinness Premiership, just a point behind Gloucester, and Head Coach Bryan Redpath knows it’ll be a tough encounter at the Stoop.

“Everybody has an opportunity to beat anyone in this league. There’s no easy game and no fixtures which you can say are a dead cert.”

“We have to be massively focussed on the next two games. We need victories, however we achieve them.”

“The pressure was relieved last week but it hasn’t gone away and we’ll go down to Harlequins having worked hard Monday to Friday and will do everything we can to win the game.”

“Quins are fighting hard. They’re in the same position as us. They’ve been unlucky with injuries and international call ups and they’ll be desperate to get back to winning ways.”

Gloucester Rugby:

Olly Morgan; Charlie Sharples, James Simpson-Daniel, Tim Molenaar, Tom Voyce; Freddie Burns, Dave Lewis; Nick Wood, Darren Dawidiuk, Greg Somerville; Will James, Dave Attwood; Peter Buxton, Jake Boer, Gareth Delve (capt)

Replacements:

Scott Lawson, Paul Doran-Jones, Pierre Capdevielle, Adam Eustace, Akapusi Qera; Jordi Pasqualin, Nicky Robinson, Lesley Vainikolo

Thomas, 33, will bring massive experience to the Gloucester pack counting the Scarlets, Leeds Tykes, Cardiff Blues, Bath Rugby, Bridgend and Neath as his former clubs in addition to winning 9 caps for Wales.

His signing comes at an opportune time for Gloucester with Andy Hazell ruled out until the New Year with a hamstring injury and Luke Narraway still a few weeks away from a return following preseason back surgery.

In addition, Alasdair Strokosch is currently on Scotland international duty whilst Akapusi Qera and Apo Satala have linked up with the Fiji squad.

Thomas, a Heineken Cup winner in his time at Bath, is currently combining coaching duties with Masters studies at Hartpury College, and has been training with Gloucester since the start of November.

Thomas has been registered to play and is available for Gloucester’s next Guinness Premiership fixture – at home to Leicester Tigers on Friday evening (kick off 7:45pm).

Dawiduik is one of nine changes to the starting line up from the team that took on London Wasps last weekend.

Also returning are Greg Somerville, Will James and Jake Boer in the pack with James Simpson-Daniel, Tim Molenaar, Lesley Vainikolo, Nicky Robinson and Dave Lewis the new faces in the backline.

Dawiduik, who will be supported by the hugely experienced prop pairing of Greg Somerville and Nick Wood, gets his big opportunity with Scott Lawson called up by Scotland A within the official three week November Test window.

Gloucester are also obliged to release Rory Lawson for the same reason whilst Alasdair Strokosch, Akapusi Qera, Apo Satala and Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu are all away on international duty.

However, Gloucester do benefit from Paul Doran-Jones being released from the England squad and he takes his place amongst the replacements whilst new signing Nathan Thomas is also named on the bench.

Gloucester Rugby:

Olly Morgan; James Simpson-Daniel, Henry Trinder, Tim Molenaar, Lesley Vainikolo; Nicky Robinson, Dave Lewis; Nick Wood, Darren Dawiduik, Greg Somerville; Will James, Dave Attwood; Peter Buxton, Jake Boer, Gareth Delve (capt)

Replacements:

Ben Phillips, Paul Doran-Jones, Pierre Capdevielle, Adam Eustace, Nathan Thomas, Jordi Pasqualin, Freddie Burns, Tom Voyce

It’s LV= Cup action for Gloucester following Tuesday night’s friendly against Australia and Head Coach Bryan Redpath names a strong side.

Robinson, Rory Lawson and Lesley Vainikolo all return to the backline having sat out the Australia game.

Meanwhile, it’s a much changed pack as only Paul Doran-Jones, Will James and Akapusi Qera retain their starting places from Tuesday night.

Scott Lawson, Greg Somerville, Dave Attwood, Alasdair Strokosch and Gareth Delve all return with Delve skippering the side.

Gloucester Rugby:

Burns; Simpson-Daniel, Trinder, Molenaar, Vainikolo; Robinson, R Lawson; Doran-Jones, S Lawson, Somerville; James, Attwood; Strokosch, Qera, Delve (capt)

Replacements:

Dawiduik, Thomas, Capdevielle, Eustace, Boer, Pasqualin, Spencer, May

Speaking ahead of the match Young said,

“The players are certainly looking forward to the Gloucester match.”

“We always get excited about playing English opposition, but it’s probably not the same tournament as we won last year.”

“It’s a little bit disappointing from my point of view that they are being played without the major international players and so on.”

With 10 Blues players in the Welsh squad the Cardiff Blues squad will be tested again this weekend.

“Certainly the way I see it, the English teams are going to be affected far less than the Welsh teams.”

“The Blues and the Ospreys will be affected most, but it gives the opportunity for young players and fringe players in all the squads a chance to play against quality teams in the English premiership.”

“I think Gloucester will want to put the record straight after we beat them three times last season in the Heineken and Anglo Welsh Cup.”

“They are probably still carrying a lot of pain from our fixtures last year and I would have thought there will be a determined group of players at Gloucester who will want to put the record straight.”

15 Sam Norton-Knight 14 Richard Mustoe 13 Gareth Thomas 12 Gavin Evans 11 Chris Czekaj 10 Ceri Sweeney 9 Richie Rees

1 Darren Morris 2 Gareth Williams 3 Gary Powell 4 Deiniol Jones 5 Scott Morgan 6 Ben White 7 Robin Sowden-Taylor 8 Xavier Rush (c)

16 Rhys Williams 17 Taufa’au Filise 18 Sam Hobbs 19 James Down 20 Josh Navidi 21 Darren Allinson 22 Dafydd James 23 Dai Flanagan

A number of forces personnel are attending Sunday’s LV= Cup game against Cardiff Blues as part of the Tickets for Troops initiative and Tuesday night’s game against Australia saw Kingsholm visited by the Royal Marines.

The Marines ran an unarmed combat display during the half time interval which was performed to music with an instructional voiceover from a member of the team.

There were also collection buckets around the ground and, once the final counting had taken place, a massive £7926.86 had been collected.

A huge thank you to everyone for supporting the Help for Heroes charity.

Please also remember that you can support the Help for Heroes cause by purchasing the H4H 2010 calendar which is on sale in the club shop.

Allen, now in his fifth season with Gloucester, is currently second in command to Bitcon having previously worked under Mike Anthony in the fitness department.

His expertise is widely recognised and Allen is currently with the England squad as they prepare for the Autumn international series through an arrangement that sees him released to the national team when they are in camp.

Head Coach Bryan Redpath confirmed today:

“Bittaz has done a great job at Gloucester and we’ll be sorry to lose him, but we can understand his reasons for wanting to go to Wigan and wish him all the best in his new role.”

“Barny has impressed us over a number of seasons and has a wealth of experience having worked under two of the leading experts in the field of strength and conditioning, in Mark Bitcon and prior to that Mike Anthony.”

“He has his own ideas about how to help us drive the group forward and we’ll give him the right support to achieve this.”

“Barny has also been gaining experience at international level with England for some time now so we feel that it’s exactly the right time in his personal development for him to be given the opportunity to show us he can lead the strength and conditioning department on a long term basis.”

Phillips started the season with Birmingham & Solihull but has been training with Gloucester for the past couple of weeks and started the last two A League games.

With Olivier Azam currently serving a 12 week ban and Scott Lawson set for Autumn international duty with Scotland in the coming weeks, Gloucester’s front row resources were looking stretched and Phillips has impressed in the short time he has been with the club confirmed Head Coach Bryan Redpath.

“It’s not easy for any player to come in once the season is underway and make an impression but Ben has done well.”

“He’ll join us initially until Christmas which is when Olivier is set to return and we’ll reassess the situation at that point.”

Phillips himself admitted that he’s looking to make the most of the next few weeks.

“It’s been a strange season. It was a difficult situation at Birmingham & Solihull with the money issues and the chance to train with Gloucester came at the perfect time.”

“I’ve enjoyed my time at the club to date. It’s a fantastic set up and a great set of lads and I’m hoping to do myself justice over the next couple of months and see how it goes from there.”