Rugby / Bristol Bears
Proud Bristolian George Kloska says it’s ‘unreal’ to represent his hometown club
George Kloska is now one of the first names on Pat Lam’s team sheet for Bristol Bears. But he almost became a basketball player.
He started playing rugby for St Brendan’s in Sea Mills while a pupil at St Teresa’s Primary School in Monks Park next to Southmead Hospital but switched to basketball for the first years of secondary school at St Bede’s in Lawrence Weston.
He began playing rugby again aged 13, however, and has never looked back, occupying most positions in the scrum before finding his calling as a tighthead prop.
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Kloska earned a deserved call-up to the England A team in February, playing against Ireland A at Ashton Gate; and on Saturday evening he will be returning to BS3 as the Bears resume their Premiership season against Exeter.
The 25-year-old says it still feels “unreal” playing for his hometown club: “This is my sixth season with Bears, probably the second season I’ve started properly playing, so when I’m putting on that jersey, thankfully a bit more regularly, it’s an awesome feeling”.
“Especially when it’s a home game, you’re naturally pumped to be playing at home. But then any away game as well, having some local boys beside me like James Dun and Jack Bates – local boys that I’ve grown up with, come through the academy with – it’s class!”
Bristol Bears teammates George Kloska (left) and Gabriel Oghre (right) were recently called up to the England A team – photo: Bristol Bears
Speaking on a recent afternoon at the Bears’ High Performance Centre, Kloska laughed when recalling how his very first rugby coach was “fuming” when he found out he was only four and the rule was you had to be five to start playing: “It all ended up working out in the end!”
Kloska is in the starting XV for Saturday with fellow Bristolian and fellow prop Ellis Genge returning from England duty in the Six Nations on the bench.
“He’s a role model in many ways,” Kloska said of Genge, who grew up in Knowle West. “Being Bristolian, playing the highest standard you can and still being himself and true to where he’s from, inspirational is the word. The aggressive game he plays; I just try and emulate that a little bit.”
The technical aspects of the sport will for the very first time on Saturday at Ashton Gate be explained to the crowd in the stadium via a ref-mic, but the dark arts of the scrum will still remain a mystery to most.
Kloska said his personal goal on the pitch “is just if I can get my scrum right every game… There’s always going to be stuff to work on but as long as I leave every day knowing where I can get better, especially at scrum time, then I’m happy.”
So what next for the proud Bristolian? “The goal is to keep playing Prem, to keep playing consistently and hopefully for a good amount of minutes… As a tighthead, scrumming is the main thing so keeping my scrum consistent can hopefully lead to higher stuff. If England’s on the cards, it would be unbelievable.”
Main photo: Bristol Bears
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