Underwater rugby probably isn’t at the forefront of too many people’s minds, but based in Cheltenham, the Gloucestershire Barracudas are leading the way in the unique sport.
Founder Laura Garlic now sees her team come together for a weekly training session, out-of-pool social gatherings, and a number of tournaments that take Gloucestershire to the international stage.
“Underwater rugby is the best sport in the world,” she said enthusiastically. “And that might be that I’m a little bit biased, but it’s completely three-dimensional and the ultimate team sport. We play in a four-meter deep pool in a diving pit and the goal is to get the ball that’s full of salt water into your opponent’s goal.
“Probably the only part of the rugby element is that we are a full contact sport, but we play mixed. We play in a diving pit, so you have to hold your breath while you tactically dive down to hopefully get the ball off your opponent and get the ball in the basket.
“We play with snorkels and masks, but you don’t really use your snorkel other than to know when to dive down.”
Training takes place every Wednesday evening between 7:30 and 9pm at Leisure at Cheltenham, adjacent to Pittville Park, but staying a group away from the pool as well is equally important to sporting success.
“We’ve made a really lovely community at the Barracudas, so people are like friends for life now when they play. And people want different things from sport. Some people are looking for competitiveness but some people are just looking for friends and we really foster that at the Barracudas.
“We go to the pub every Wednesday after training. We do things outside of the water as well, and we have built a really lovely group of people who love this wild and crazy sport.
“I feel really proud to be a founder of this club because we truly are the friendliest underwater rugby club in the UK, and I believe in the world because we say no to no one, everyone is welcome.”
Garlic has formed a dynamic team across a range of ages too; the key attraction varies for different people, ranging from wanting to take swimming lengths to a new and competitive level, a new challenge after playing traditional rugby, and just to stay fit.
Significantly though, the club has appealed to both men and women, a factor very important to her: “Normally you find that you either attract one gender or the other.
“At the Barracudas we’ve always had a very good 50-50 split of women and men, and I’m really passionate that we encourage women to always come back because I think that you need more encouragement for women.
“I would say our average age is 30. But we’ve got people that are 18 years old and we’ve also got someone who is 72, I believe, in our club. So we have got a really wide age group too.”
Nationwide, underwater rugby remains a rather unique sport. There’s still only a small handful of clubs across the UK, making tournaments a fairly close-knit affair. “We play in nationals,” Garlic said. “That’s really fun and it’s really lovely to get together as a British underwater rugby community. We always really enjoy that. We’re also hosting 2026 nationals, which is very exciting.”
For the novice observer, international trips to compete may not have been an expected occurrence. But for the Barracudas, who have competed in the Open League for a number of years, they will be returning to the continent again later this year.
“Because there’s not many clubs, we go to quite a few international tournaments. So we’re going to the Open League in 2026, which is in Barcelona and Paris.
“And then we’re also supporting a women’s initiative from Great Britain to go to a tournament in Copenhagen in April. And then we’re also possibly looking at another women’s tournament in October time as well.
“So we’ve got some really exciting tournaments that are really competitive nationally and internationally.”
The Barracudas are a club that, as noted, have a good emphasis on social events and staying friends away from the weekly training evenings.
However equally at the top of the priority list is to become more competitive in tournaments – though it’s the difference in preparation schedules is something that splits the teams on the bigger stage.
“I think when you’re part of a club and you’re against teams that might train four times a week, there’s obviously a bit of a disparity of skill and level,” Garlic explained. “We’ve been on the end of those games, and to be honest everyone’s heads always are really held high.
“But what would be really lovely is if we could be a team that could show that we’re improving. We went to the Open League in 2025, but we’d really like to see improvement. So we’re hoping that in 2026, we can compete a bit more because we’ve got that extra edge.
“I think having that extra half an hour training is going to make such a massive difference that we’re hoping to see some improvement. And actually, the team or squad that we’re taking to the Open League is really exciting. It’s a really strong team.
“So I think that this time it’s not just about having a full 15 to take to a tournament, which I’m sure we 100% will. It’s also about taking a team that we can improve on our last performance at the Open League.”
