Gloucester Rugby are a professional rugby union club based in the West Country city of Gloucester , England. They play in Premiership Rugby , England's top division of rugby. The club was formed in and since has played its home matches at Kingsholm Stadium in the north of the city. The Premiership Rugby Cup win in meant they became the first club to win all three iterations of the English domestic cup competition. Despite never winning a league title, Gloucester have finished runners-up on four occasions; β89 , β90 , β03 , and most recently in β The club has no official nickname but is referred to as the Cherry and Whites by supporters and the media in reference to the Cherry and white hooped shirts worn by the team.
The club was formed in after a meeting at the Spread Eagle Hotel with the announcement in the Gloucester Journal: "A football club as rugby was then called has been formed in this city β the season's operations begin at the Spa on the first Tuesday in next month.
The club left the Spa after an argument with the cricket club that they were ground sharing with. During the winter, the Rugby Club had used a salt mixture to remove frost from the pitch, resulting in the death of the grass on the wicket.
Gloucester were no longer welcome at the Spa ground. Having beaten Bath , Bristol , London Welsh and Coventry all away from home in earlier rounds, they beat Moseley in a Twickenham final that was marred by violence and the sending off of Moseley's Nigel Horton.
Despite the two cup wins of the s, and a shared trophy in , Gloucester were soon to find themselves in the shadow of Bath, the rising force from down the A In , Gloucester came close to winning the 'double' but failed to win either competition, losing to Wasps for the league title and losing the cup final 48β6 to Bath. Professionalism finally came in , but Gloucester was without a major investor, and lost ground in terms of player recruitment and revenue acquisition.
