New season, new beginnings.

That’s very much the case for Cheltenham Tigers as they look ahead to the 2023/24 season.

The Rugby Football Union have switched their flagship men’s team from the South West Division to the Midlands Division, which means that instead of playing in Regional 2 Severn they will be now playing in Regional 2 Midlands West alongside two other Gloucestershire clubs – Stow-on-the-Wold and Newent – who have also been moved by the RFU.

The 12-strong division is completed by Berkswell & Balsall, Silhillians, Stratford-upon-Avon, Hereford, Malvern, Ludlow, Shipston-on-Stour, Worcester and Moseley Oak.

It means Cheltenham, who begin their league campaign at home to Stratford-upon-Avon on Saturday 2^nd September, will be stepping into the unknown, but chairman Steve Ratcliffe insisted: “I think it freshens things up. It looks quite a strong division, there are some decent clubs and the travel is not that much different to what we were doing before.

“We don’t really know too much about anyone. We’ve obviously played Newent before but although we’ve played Stow in local cup games I don’t think we’ve ever played them in the league.”

And while Ratcliffe is happy with the switch he admitted that it did cause some disruption to their pre-season plans.

“For the past seven years we’ve played Worcester home and away before the start of the new league season,” he said. “Obviously we had to change that.”

That was an early challenge for new lead coach Will Crane, a 29-year-old hooker who will play for Hartpury in the Championship this season.

Team manager Nick Ralph and player Harry Foote, who is on the comeback trail after a knee injury, will look after the side when Crane is unavailable on Saturday afternoons, but Ratcliffe is hoping that is kept to a minimum as a good number of games in the Championship are played on Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons.

And Ratcliffe is certainly optimistic as he looks ahead to the new campaign.

“I’d like to think that we can finish in the top half and, if things go well, the top two or three,” he said. “But until it settles down it’s difficult to say.”

Ratcliffe has just celebrated 25 years as chairman of the club and this season he will be working alongside a new president in Jill Douglas, the TV presenter, who has replaced club stalwart Dave Townsend.

Douglas, who is married to Carl Hogg, the former Scotland international and current Director of Academy and Development at Gloucester, was previously president of Cheltenham Tigers’ ladies’ section, a section that is such a vibrant part of the club.

Last season was one they will never forget as they won two showpiece finals at Twickenham with the 1st XV beating Leicester Tigers Women 27-17 to win the Championship Play-off, while the 2nds won 36-22 against Hackney Ladies to lift the Intermediate Cup.

“It was exceptional, an unbelievable finish,” said Ratcliffe. “It was a phenomenal performance.”

Surpassing that or even matching that will be very tough, of course, but that is something that new women’s coach Lewis Arnold is certainly ready to take on.

Arnold, who is head of rugby at the University of Worcester, has recently stopped playing and Ratcliffe said: “He’s well up for the challenge, it’s a good challenge for him and it’s good for his coaching career. He comes well recommended.

“The target is to get into the play-offs again but it’s getting tougher and tougher each year.”