IT has been a case of full circle in his rugby career for ex-England international Duncan Bell.

He has returned to his rugby roots to help Gloucester Premier League outfit Chipping Sodbury after a glittering career which took him from South Gloucestershire to playing in front of sell-out crowds and the biggest nations in the game at Twickenham.

And the former tight head prop, who retired from professional rugby with Bath in 2012, says it is refreshing to watch and help to guide his ‘mates’ at Chipping Sodbury from the touchline this season.

Bell, who earned five full England caps and played against Southern Hemisphere superpowers Argentina, Australia and New Zealand in 2009 and was also an England A international, has been offered coaching roles at higher grade rugby clubs than Chipping Sodbury.

But the prop, who has shed an astonishing four stones from the days when he used to secure the right-hand side of the Bath and England scrum, feels more than blessed to be part of the Sodbury gang.

Bell, who started his playing career at Harlequins as a teenager, went on to represent Welsh clubs Ebbw Vale and Pontypridd but spent the larger part of his career at English Premiership giants Sale Sharks and Bath before retirement.

He did, though, answer an emergency call from Welsh region Newport Gwent Dragons in February 2014 when they were facing a front row injury crisis and, at the age of forty, played nine matches in the Pro12 League for them.

But being in Chipping Sodbury suits him fine now. Bell, who coaches there alongside Stuart McRitchie and Neil Taylor, said: “I love it. I live around the corner. I grew up in Hawksbury which is three or four miles away so this is home to me.

“I have lived around here a long time and now I am coaching my mates which is really good. It is a really vibrant club and I have known it for a long time.

“It’s a fantastic social arena for the area and for me personally as well.

“It really brings home everything that is good about grassroots rugby for me and coaching on the sidelines and watching the boys, how passionate they are about things and how much is means to everyone at the club, is great to be part of.

“I cannot describe it anymore than it is rugby and that is what is brilliant about it.”

Why mortgage adviser Bell did not take up chances to work at a higher level is a personal one based around his professional career outside rugby.

He explained: “I did have a couple of opportunities to coach at a higher level. It was a decision which meant I would probably have had to give up work. I work for a local mortgage brokerage, it is going really well, we are really busy and I owe a lot to Chartwell Funding who are my employers."

“I have been with them for over three years now and, if I was going to coach at a higher level, I would have to give up working for them and, with the greatest of respect to a lot of coaches, it is a tough place to be.

“It is very volatile. I don’t know what the average ‘life expectancy’ is for a coach in the two top divisions in England but I don’t think it is very long and it is not a very forgiving place.

“I have got a very good job and my career has gone full circle. I started as an amateur as a kid and even when I was playing in the Allied Dunbar (League) back in the day with Harlequins, it was amateur and then it went professional.

“So I have been through the whole thing as a professional and now I am back in the amateur game and it has been really refreshing this season to see such passion at grassroots level.

“At this level, there does not seem to be a lot of movement between clubs because they play for the badge and they play because they want to play for their mates. That is what is just great about rugby. I absolutely adore that.”

Sodbury finished the 2016/17 Gloucester Premier season on Saturday with a disappointing 47-15 home defeat to Hucclecote which was always going to be a difficult one as it was a battle for who would come third in the table. Sodbury finished fourth.

Yet there is a lot of belief that Chipping Sodbury can go places in the future.

Bell said: “There is a lot of momentum. It was not a long time ago that this team were a couple of leagues down but the club have galvanised together. We have a stronger playing base and we have a stronger financial footing and there are big plans ahead for the development of the club.

“This club is going places. It is a wonderful part of the community.”

Bell added: “Everyone has their heart and soul in this club. It is just a wonderful experience being at this club and long may it continue.”