It is no exaggeration to say that rugby saved Richard Oxenbury’s life. Five years ago, Oxenbury was addicted to drink and drugs, estranged from his family and sleeping rough. Despite finding shelter at the Worcester YMCA, “RJ”, as he is known to his friends, believed he would slip into his old habits and would be dead in a matter of months. He was 24 years old.

Salvation came in the form of Worcester Warriors Homeless RFC. Oxenbury had only been off drugs for two days, and was suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms, when he went to a training session organised by the team’s coach, Dave Rogers, who works in the community department for Worcester Warriors but who has since dedicated much of his free time to nurturing England’s only homeless rugby team.

“When I came here, I looked like one of the Simpsons because I was yellow,” Oxenbury recalls, breaking off from the side’s midweek training session.

“To be honest, before then, I thought: ‘I’ll give it six months and I will probably be dead’. When I first moved here, there would be people disappearing from the hostel and all you could smell was drink or drugs. I thought: ‘Oh great, here we go, there is only one way and it is down.’

“But I saw that there were five of them at the hostel playing rugby, and I thought it might give me something to do.

“I said to Dave: ‘Even if I am sick, put me through the pace’. I stuck with it and came out clear.”

The club was still in its infancy in 2013. Rogers, a humble yet energetic Welshman – despite being born and bred in Gloucester – had received an email about a plan to get Premiership rugby sides engaged in homeless rugby after the success of homeless football.