As the last remaining amateur team in rugby’s national leagues, Lymm Rugby are the last example of a community club competing at the top level.

On a cold Tuesday evening, Lymm Rugby’s training facilities much resemble any other local sports club. A slightly weathered looking clubhouse with four tennis courts tacked to the side.

The only thing that betrays the club as one of rugby’s fifty premier institutions is the state-of-the-art artificial pitch that lies in the centre of the training complex.

Promoted in 2023 to rugby’s fourth tier, National 2, Lymm have faced an uphill struggle.

Competing now against ambitious, upwardly mobile clubs like Leeds Tikes, and so-called ‘rugby academies’ like Loughborough Sport, Lymm have maintained a unique model.

Unlike other clubs at this level, the club are not able to attract talented players from higher levels with lucrative part-time deals, nor are they stacked with professional rugby’s next generation.

Instead, Lymm Rugby have pursued an entirely amateur model.

“I like to think we are the most professional amateur club in the country,”

Currently a student of Cardiff Met University, Isaac Millachip has travelled up and down the country at his own expense to continue to be part of the project.

His comments reflect the attitude of most of the players, as the captain, Josh Hadland has reflected:

“The players are here because they want to be here.”

Teachers, solicitors, students.

All talented enough to get paid for the sport they love, instead choosing to play for Lymm.

Considering their amateur status, access to top quality medical care is a must for players who often find themselves juggling full time careers which require them to be physically fit.

Speaking to first and second team physio Emma Cawley, it becomes clear just how difficult it is to balance full time employment and professional-level sport.

“It’s just chaos in here most weeks,” she says

“We only get one day a week with them so there’s always another injury to deal with.”

Prior to training, that is abundantly clear in the changing room. Millachip himself is receiving treatment for a torn anterior cruciate ligament and is on crutches. Others turn up with torn quads, huge cuts and broken bones, all working just as hard away from the pitch to keep their bodies intact as they do on it.

“The training and playing is brutal,” first team scrum half Cal Morris explains, aptly lying on the physio bed receiving treatment.

“We have to manage our real lives and the sport, and that can be really difficult at times.”

Morris has played full time , before returning to his boyhood club later in his career.

Like a lot of the players in the dressing room, his experience of having an injury during his professional days at Sale Sharks is very different to Lymm.

“At Sale we got four days of physio attention per week,” he reflected.

“These days with working full time I’m having to do a lot of my own training to stay fit.”

He and his teammates are far more focused on the varied experiences they have cultivated through playing for this self-professed community club, as opposed to their own physical troubles.

Most recently in 2025, the club were moved from the National 2 North division to the West, incurring a 4500 km increase in travel across the season, and an estimated £15,000 increase in cost.

Lymm had previously finished third in the North division, but they now face trips to Exeter, Devon and Cornwall throughout the season, all funded by club members.

It is here that Lymm’s status as a community club really becomes evident.

“The players and the fans came together to support the club.”

Groundsman Andy Leach reflects fondly on the innovative ways fans found to support their team.

One such fan, Paul Faulkes, travelled 850 kilometres on a charity bike ride down to Redruth, Lymm’s furthest away trip, to raise money from the club.

“Paul is 75 so it’s even more impressive really,” Leach laughed.

“He raised over £12,000.”

Club secretary Rick Johnson reinforced the feeling that the club inspires this kind of attitude from members.

“You join and you don’t leave,” Rick said.

“I’ve known Paul for a number of years, we both came through every level.”

Rick has been at Lymm in some capacity since 1970, including as a player.

Another enduring characteristic of the club is longevity.

Every club of any sporting persuasion has individuals who embody the essence of a particular institution. Two or three characters who almost predate the club itself.

For Lymm, those people are everywhere.

Twelve of the starting 15 from last weekend came through Lymm’s academy set up, including captain Hadland:

“Three of lads in the squad now I played with aged three,” he said.

“The club’s just in your blood at that point.”

The community rallying around the rugby club is nothing new for Lymm. Every Christmas the club host a pantomime featuring a number of the first team players.

“This year’s show did nine dates over Christmas,” club captain Josh Hadland said.

“We sold out the local theatre every time, people loved us making fun of ourselves.”

Don’t let the theatrics fool you.

Lymm’s funding methods may well seem antiquated to a team competing at the top echelon of sport, but that has not stunted the club’s aspirations of competitiveness at the top level.

One such attempt to create sustainable competitiveness for the club has been the Artificial Grass Pitch installed at the club in 2019.

“The pitch requires much more upkeep than our grass pitch used to,” Leach reflects.

“It means the lads can train in all conditions, something that even some of the best semi-pro sides can’t do.”

What Leach reflects is the fact that Lymm’s budget for expansion is often competitive with clubs around them, purely because their players are amateurs.

This may seem as though the club is short-changing talented individuals who could ply their trade elsewhere, but one consistent thread came through every conversation with people at the club.

“The lads are here because they want to be, not because they have to be.”

That kind of attitude from players who want sport to be fun, is priceless.

Lymm’s ability to secure loyalty and commitment from ambitious players appears to be a relic for sport. Like the rest of the sporting ecosystem, the priority has become financial.

“We don’t have an issue with quality players leaving for higher levels,” Johnson said.

“Lot’s of that happens, but we do get frustrated when players go a level below for a couple of hundred pounds a week,”

Rick’s attitude is telling about the way the club view player development:

“They’ll leave with our blessing and they’ll come back with it.”

A club confident in the enduring consistency of their amateur model is rare in rugby, fast becoming a franchised caricature of American Football in the UK.

“There’s been loads of stuff around about Premiership rugby,” Johnson comments.

“These boys embody something different about our club.”

With a women’s arm fast on the way, Lymm RFC are the last bastion of a traditional sport that seems to be dying out.