Kingswood RFC captain James Taylor was surrounded by a cauldron of noise as he led his his team out at the home of English rugby as part of the RFU’s Twickenham Takeover.

His club was one of eight teams selected to play at Twickenham for the Play Together Stay Together campaign. They were chosen by an independent panel for their hard work in establishing player pathways, supporting young stars on their journey through to adult rugby. 

Taylor, 34, led his team to promotion earlier this season and followed that up with an unforgettable day at Twickenham in front of a raucous travelling support.

“The whole club has been massively looking forward to this, it’s pretty special,” Taylor said. 

“Lining up in the tunnel with the boys behind you and walking out and seeing the stands in front of you is a very exciting experience.

“It’s always nice having loved ones come down to watch. We brought quite a lot of travelling fans and you could definitely hear them on the pitch. 

“The stadium being a wrap-around means you can hear everything a lot easier.”

Backed by their vocal travelling hordes, Kingswood opened their run with a win against Hartlepool RFC which proved extra-special for Taylor, who managed to get on the scoresheet. 

“We hit the ground running with a win and probably played some of the best rugby of our season, so we just need a stadium like this every week,” he said.

“From a personal point of view, scoring a try at Twickenham was pretty special, and from a club perspective just winning a game here is amazing.”

When head coach Tom Bowen-Hall joined Kingswood just over two years ago, the club were struggling both on and off the field, with membership dipping and results lagging. 

But the club decided to implement change and made a commitment to building a pathway programme, introducing a dedicated Transition Manager and an U23 team. 

As a result of these changes, the club went from having almost no junior section to attaining over 300 age-grade players this season. 

Bowen-Hall, 32, said: “If you see the team sheet we’ve put out today, three-quarters of the boys playing at Twickenham are home-grown players or have been around Kingswood from a fairly young age.

“Without that youth section having that desire to stay at the club and believing in the people around it, we wouldn’t be here and playing any games at all.”

Play Together Stay Together is an England Rugby campaign to encourage people to get back into rugby. Want to get back to the action? Find your local rugby club using findrugby.com