Cardiff Metropolitan University captain Ryan Roach enjoyed a day out at Twickenham on Friday and the hooker insists he is determined to get back there in March and lift the inaugural BUCS Super Rugby trophy.

Having previously been split into north and south leagues, this season sees the top eight rugby-playing universities combined into one competition, the new BUCS Super Rugby.

Cardiff Met kick things off by hosting Northumbria University on October 3 and will be hoping to make it all the way to the showpiece at Twickenham on March 26.

And after attending a launch day at Rugby HQ last week, Roach admits he well and truly has a taste for the big stage.

“It’s highly prestigious to be named as captain,” 21-year-old Roach said. “Cardiff Met has been, throughout the years, a massive uni in rugby, so to lead them out is an absolute privilege.

“I’m looking forward to it and hopefully this season we can emulate the success we’ve had in previous seasons, perform well and do our coaches proud.

“Being at Twickenham fuels the fire to be back here for the final, it’s such a great stadium. We know the competition we’ve got to face.

“It will be interesting to face some of the north teams and see where they stand.

“But obviously for everyone their main objective is to be back here at Twickenham and get their hands on that BUCS trophy.

“You’ve got to respect Exeter, they won it last year and were a great side. We played them and unfortunately lost to them twice.

“Loughborough will be up there again, they play in the National One, they play a good standard of rugby and a good brand of rugby too.

“But this year, with the league we’re in, every team are going to be hard to beat. You look at the fixture list and there’s not an easy one on there.

“We’re going to have to be on top of our game and week in, week out, we’re going to have to bring the performance we need.”

Chris Davey is director of rugby at Cardiff Met and he is champing at the bit to see his side tested against some sides they haven’t previously seen much of.

But he also insists that Cardiff Met won’t be making up the numbers in the first ever BUCS Super Rugby competition, revealing some of the players to keep an eye on this campaign.

“One of the reasons for setting this league up is that when we were split into north and south, it was generally the same four teams in the north and south, year on year,” Davey said.

“We didn’t get much opportunity to play against each other until we got into the knockout phase.

“So this provides us with an opportunity for us to test ourselves against the likes of Loughborough, Durham, Leeds Beckett and Northumbria on a regular basis.

“It’s going to be a very, very challenging league and we’re looking forward, particularly as the only Welsh institution in this league.

“Within our own side we’d like to think we’ve got a good forward platform this year, some good guys up front.

“Our captain, Ryan Roach, at hooker, we expect big things of him. A young second row we’ve got, Alex Donbrant, who was our player of the year, last year, so if he can hit the field running – the way he finished it last season – then we expect him to be one of our lead performers.

“Behind the scrum it’s difficult to say who our top performers are, but all in all we’d like to think we’re more of a team than the individuals within the team, to be honest.”

BUCS Super Rugby is a new national league, bringing together the eight best men’s university rugby teams in the country. The league is run by British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) and powered by Rugby Vertical. For more info visit www.bucs.org.uk/superrugby