English-Italian with 20 international caps for Italy, six years of Jake Polledri’s playing days were at Gloucester Rugby and today fans will remember a player fondly for 69 appearances as well as his journey beginning at Hartpury University between 2015 and 2017. Young Player of the Season in the 2017-18 season, Player of the Year for the 2019-20 season and his most memorable moment in a Gloucester shirt, despite defeat, was the 2018 Challenge Cup final against Cardiff Blues in Bilbao.
Sadly Jake’s career ended far too soon when at the age of 28 it was March 2024 that he announced his retirement. A horrific foot injury while at Zebre cost Jake his career, all this despite overcoming a knee injury that kept him out for almost two years. It is undoubtedly a huge shame that Jake Polledri is no longer playing rugby because the injury he sustained is something he says “I could never have prepared for.”
Many Gloucester fans will agree with the statement that Jake (now 29 and coaching rugby at Cinderford) should still be at the height of his professional career but he does see the reality that there are plenty of people in life who are going through a lot worse. Beyond the low of retirement, a big thumbs up does however need to be directed at Jake on what he has done since, something positive to get out of what could have been a gloomy spiral of misery but instead a chance to pick himself up and go again.
It was during the 2020 COVID pandemic that Jake took an opportunity by the scruff of the neck to explore his love for cider. Just Pressed Cider is his business and four years on at his warehouse based in the Forest of Dean at Longhope, local producers have been collaborating and that first bottle of cider came in October 2020.
“I quite like the buzz,” Jake said. “Seeing customers enjoy what I do is enjoyable but also backbreaking! Whether it is packaging all the bottles, making the cider and then selling the product, I like to feel I’m offering something different to what other wholesalers like Thatchers or Stowford Press do.”
Just Pressed has taken off as business for Jake where he’s producing excellent ciders
(Image: Just Pressed with Jake Polledri)
Indeed Just Pressed can be found not only at the warehouse with its mini shop front (also selling excellent coffee btw) but go for a drink or too at Gloucester Brewery and you will find Jake’s ciders on tap. “It has taken time and energy, a slog but I find it all really fun to see people trying the cider. From a personal side of things the cider has been a good distraction.”
The ciders have won decent awards such as Blindside which won a Great Taste Award in 2023 and 2024, Mango Wave is always a popular one plus Fratello, a fruity cider that does have an important logo, the very word meaning brother.
If the early retirement was not a significant blow for Jake, losing his brother Sam aged just 24 to a Cardiac Arrest is the cruellest circumstance to happen to any family. It happened in Bristol in February 2022, Sam Polledri as a kind, caring, fit and healthy young man, it is obvious to anyone that Sam’s life was taken far too soon.
Sam was also a keen rugby player and the logo to Fratello shows Jake on the surface of the water, his shadow below that of Sam. It’s a touching piece of illustration with the cider carrying a hit of strawberry and raspberry flavours, West Country apples and just a touch of mixed berries. 3p from every Fratello can and £2.64 per every Fratello keg sold goes to the Sam Polledri Foundation, which raises funds to purchase, install and upkeep publicly accessible defibrillators.
Fratello means brother, a cider dedicated to Jake’s brother Sam Polledri who sadly passed away far too young aged 24
(Image: Just Pressed Jake Polledri)
Jake alongside mum Louise Polledri with the defib installed outside the Just Pressed shop
(Image: Will Luker)
A public defib was installed at Millennium Square where Sam passed away and outside Just Pressed, a vital defib has also been stored because as Jake says you just never know. The question to ask of Jake is what would Sam have made of the cider? “I think he would be proud. He never saw me get back to playing rugby before I announced retirement. Fratello is a cider dedicated to fighting hard to make sure defibs are installed in as many public places as possible. If Sam had a public defib he would still be here and I’ve got to say thank you to the work we’ve done alongside the Great Western Air Ambulance.”