THE idea of a Past Players Association came up in December last year when Brian Kennedy and Jonny Kennedy mentioned it to head of media, Dave Swanton.

Dave went through his book of contacts, Facebook and Twitter and started to build a list.

Steve Hanley chipped in with several phone numbers and the club then put a committee together, consisting  of Steve Hanley, Graeme Bowers, Dean Styger, Angela Traynor, Melanie Hill and Dave Swanton.

It was decided to launch on a theme of the European Challenge Cup which the club won back in 2002 at the Kassam Stadium.

With next Thursday’s opponents being Northampton it created the opportunity of Steve Diamond and Jim Mallinder going head to head in the game but also re-united them as the coaching duo who brought the club its first piece of major silverware in its then 141 year history.


The club were able to contact the majority of the squad who played that season and were delighted with the response.

Geography got in the way with Stuart Pinkerton (Australia), Charl Marais (South Africa), Scott Lines (New Zealand) and Kevin Yates (France) unable to get here next week, but we hope you will enjoy seeing the lads again who gave the that edge of the seat victory against Pontypridd.


Next Thursday is a very special night as it’s the first of its kind and the club have now over 200 contacts addresses of players who have played for the club down the years.

The list is growing all the time, indeed Philippe Saint Andre, Lionel Faure, Jason White, Graeme Bond and Sebastien Chabal have all been in touch and hopefully we will get more of our past players and coaches down to games in the months and years ahead.