Author Archives: Paul Clarke

Academy cling on to claim win over the Army

Ealing Trailfinders Academy 27-24 British Army Academy

The young Trailfinders side survived a sustained second half assault by the British Army Academy to record their second straight win of the season at Vallis Way.

The first half had been a completely different affair with Ealing playing some excellent rugby, a dominant scrum and set piece set the platform for attack after attack, some very average passing prevented the boys from capitalizing on the overlaps that were being created.

Wing Andre Adeleke was the first to get on the score board, a strong run and offload from opposite winger Reon Joseph to full back Josh Steadman who’s simple pass allowed a walk in by Adeleke. Steadman was next with a fine individual effort, recovering a kick on half way he set off on a mazy run to the line leaving 4 defenders in his wake.

A strong carry by hooker Chris Joyce peeling off the back of a shortened line out sucked in the Army defence and a clever rewind by scrum half Andrew Nurse put skipper Marcus Lowe over the whitewash. A period of good interplay between backs and forwards saw second row Nyall Wake act as scrum half to feed Adeleke for his second of the day.

The second half was somewhat disjointed with several changes by Academy Director John Lacey making continuity difficult. The Army seized the initiative and used their powerful carriers to dominate where previously they had been snuffed out.

Apart from some stout defence late on, a disallowed try by winger Rasaan Samms was the only high spot for Ealing fans in the half.

John Lacey said “Our first half performance was very good, we spilt too much ball in contact which was a worry but our speed of play was very good. We missed some pace in the back row but our midfield balance was better this time out. It was clear to see the lads who have been playing every week and those returning from injury.

We will need to be stronger against the Royal Navy next month, they pretty much blew us away last year and will be looking to go into the Inter Services Championship on a high after losing to Exeter Chiefs Academy”.

The Academy’s next game is against the Royal Navy away at HMS Temeraire in Portsmouth on Sunday 6th November, kick off is at 14:00.

Ealing Trailfinders Academy

Steadman J, Joseph, Hitchcock C, Townshend, Adeleke, McMinn, Nurse, Lowe, Day, Kritikos, Wake, Ellingham, Chamnaoui, Joyce, Vosabalavu

Replacements
Collins, Barton, Bannister, Retter, MacDougall, Nolan-Hutchinson, Jarvis, Samms, Walker, Luk

Scorers
Tries – Adeleke 2, Steadman J, Lowe
Cons – McMinn 2
Pens – McMinn

Royal Navy up next for the Academy

Navy Flier 2

After 2 wins against Service opposition the Senior Academy travel to the historic Naval base of Portsmouth on Sunday 6th November to take on the Royal Navy in their own back yard.

Last years fixture was a tough one at Vallis Way, with the Navy notching up their first win against the young Trailfinders, and this year looks set to be a real cracker.

The Academy players are enjoying a rich vein of form with the Men’s Section at the club, scoring freely in their Zoo Shield 2 League fixtures. Flanker Alfie Hill is the pick of the bunch with 10 tries in his last 4 games including 4 in his last run out against Westcliff.

Keep an eye out for an exciting announcement in the next few day… For up to date news and info follow us on Twitter @ETFacademy

Ealing Evergreens 55 – 14 Old Isleworthians

“Vets open their Middlesex Vets League Account with a bonus point win”

One of the strongest Evergreens teams fielded in recent years donned the green jerseys on the newly renamed “Stadium Pitch” at Fortress Vallis under floodlights on a crisp Friday night. Early exchanges were pretty even as OIs showed they were not there just to make up the numbers, responding to early Ealing pressure with strong forward runs themselves. However, after about 10 minutes Vets debutant Leroy blasted over from a neat base of the scrum pick-up followed by a rare Dave Steene conversion. OIs responded well with a break from a quick tap penalty allowing their lightening quick centre to score a converted try. With the game well poised at 7-7 the early loss of Captain Jake could have been an Achilles’ heel moment but he was admirably replaced by the whippet-like John Ronane, with newly appointed vice-captain Jacko stepping into the General’s slippers with ease.

Our second scoring debutante of the night, the right Reverend Tim, drove over with his new flock of unrepentant forwards into the left hand corner to make it 12-7 and, despite Pup dropping the ball over the line (not seeing the defence had kept up with him), the Evergreens stretched their lead soon after. Tristan bundled himself over the line from a catch and drive at a line out stretching the lead to ten points. Effe showed his power has not left him in the new season when he bounced an OIs defender to score another unconverted try, that the aforementioned second row (Rev) deemed eminently kickable; he was soon substituted for a “breather” by the match day manager Green, seen pacing up and down the touchline like Ferguson in his heyday (ahem).

Evergreens v OIs half-time

 

The half time talk was centred around simplifying the game plan, focusing on reducing unforced errors to try to stretch and tire OIs and rotating our bench, which was patiently waiting to get a run. The second half scoring was opened with a moment of pure class as Leroy fed Tristan in a tight space necessitating a straight, spinning exorcet-like reverse pass to Jez which the forwards dogged to the try line; Steenie could not miss this one: 29-7. After a jinxing run from the kick-off Beck Pup slipped to Leroy for his second score, soon followed by Jacko (not dropping the ball over the line or giving it to the opposition) scoring after a free flowing backs move in the left corner: 43-7.

OIs, down but never out in this match, then showed their resilience by scoring a well deserved consolation try by applying heavy pressure on the Evergreens line using the penalties justifiably awarded for not rolling away at the breakdown. However, Leroy scored soon after, from a great hook against the head (Fabio/McSweeny*), leading to the workman (=Steenie) blaming his tools (= fancy orange boots) for another con miss. Jacko swerved for the final nail in the OIs coffin, hammered home by Steenie to make it 55-14 at the final whistle.

Great start to the league season boys; building on the comeback at Barnes with free flowing rugby, depth in the squad and (Rahim claims) one of the finest post match meals at Vallis of beef pie, washed down with a rarely experienced Chairman’s purchased ale or two. Next game under flood lights on Friday 11th November versus Wasps…so are you a vacillating, would-be Evergreen reading this match report? Get emailing the club and come on board; we are on our way.

MoM: Leroy for his hatrick & DoD: Jacko (2 from 2)

* Delete as applicable

Evergreens v OIs

Academy announce team to face British Army U23

The Academy has named their team to take on the challenge of facing the best young players in the British Army at Trailfinders Sports Club on Sunday.

There are several changes from the side that won their last game, against the RAF Hawks in September.

Felipe Vosabalavu makes his first Academy start of the season at Prop, as does Will Day in the Back Row. Chris Hitchcock has recovered from injury and returns to the Centre, allowing double try scorer Reon Joseph to take up his favoured position on the Wing.

Scrum half Ross MacDougall a member of last months opposition RAF Hawks side looks set to make his Academy début from the bench.

Academy Coach Tom Gammage said of the fixture “the boys have worked really hard this week to prepare for a huge physical challenge against the Army, there’s always a buzz around this game, we’re really excited to see how we perform after a good win last time out.”

Kick off on Sunday is at 14:15, entry is free and we’d love to welcome you on the lifeline to cheer the boys on.

Look out for the students from the National Film and TV School who are conducting a full Outside Broadcast of the game for their course. Keep an eye on the website for the final edit!

Team
1. VOSABALAVU, F
2. JOYCE, C
3. CHAMNAOUI, Z
4. ELLINGHAM, L
5. WAKE, N
6. KRITIKOS, A
7. DAY, W
8. LOWE, M
9. NURSE, A
10. McMINN, M
11. ADELEKE, A
12. TOWNSHEND, L
13. HITCHCOCK, C
14. JOSEPH, R
15. STEADMAN, J

Replacements
16. BANNISTER, C
17. COLLINS, K
18. BARTON, A
19. RETTER, B
20. MacDOUGALL, R
21. NOLAN-HUTCHINSON
22. JARVIS, N
23. WALKER, L
24. SAMMS, R
25. LUK, YS

Academy look ahead to Army challenge

The Academy welcome the Army U23 to Vallis Way on Sunday October 16th in what is set to be a serious test for the young Trailfinders.

Our last game saw a convincing win against the RAF Hawks in September and there have been some impressive performances with the Men’s section in Zoo Shield League 2 which included a 40 point hall for the Academy players against previously unbeaten Old Albanians.

Centre Luca Townshend has been in good form scoring a pair of tries yesterday while U19 prop Kadeem Collins is impressing with his work rate and ball carrying ability.

Prop Zaki Chamnaoui, No8 Marcus Lowe and Centre Chris Hitchcock will all return from injury to be available for selection while Hooker Will Day looks set to make his first appearance of the season.

As always we expect a testing encounter against the Army and have always been impressed with the leadership on display and the boys love the physical challenge we’ve come to expect.

Kick off is at 14:30 and it would be a huge boost for the team to see as many of you on the touchline watching as possible.

Barnes Vets 31 – 31 Evergreens

A tale of two halves…and two Jackos!

“The boys are back in town, the boys are back in town”…albeit it a different town, with our first game of the season. After a successful return to the Surrey Vets league last season (5th place of 14) we are playing in the newly formed Middlesex Vets league this year but planned a tough early season test against last year’s Surrey champions Barnes.

A strong team on paper was, however, immediately under pressure in the first half with the strong Barnes centre-pairing punching holes in the defence weakened by being one short on the pitch. Once 14-0 down the play settled and after good control of slowly recycled ball Pup Eddie made a clean break to score an unconverted try.  Barnes responded with a well worked blind side break and another despite a steady period of Ealing pressure to take the score to a seemingly unassailable 26-5 halftime lead. On reflection green shoots were visible with committed defence from the backs (including a crucial stop from Jacko saving Rutherford’s blushes) on their own try line and well planned attack forcing penalties on the Barnes line.

What Captain Jake delivered at halftime needs to be bottled and sold on eBay as a “Turnaround Tonic” Victorian Quacks would be proud of as the boys came out of the blocks with two quick individual tries from Whitney. His grubber through for the second was reminiscent of Jamie George’s recent effort against Australia, not only because of similar body habitus. Pup’s second score after a huge Gary Owen from the increasingly confident Gunny left boot, added to his nonchalant drop kicked conversions (where was the water boy with the kicking tee?), took the visitors to level pegging at 26-26; game on!

Barnes #2

Captain jake soars like an eagle

They say Geminis have two personalities and Jacko demonstrated he must be a June baby by smashing through the Barnes line only to drop the ball when grounding a certain score, securing a certain nomination on the opposite scale of MOM. However, almost immediately he made amends by diving over in the right hand corner to hand a 31-26 lead to the Evergreens despite now being down to 13 players having lost Eggnogg to a hamstring injury. Unfortunately Barnes’s never say die attitude was rewarded with a final try tying the scores at fulltime 31-31. This was as good a game as you are likely to see all season, with some fans commentating it was better value than the £8 they had splashed out to watch the Barnes 1st team in National 2 on the adjacent pitch.

Next match under flood lights on a Friday night at Vallis in a couple of weeks, be there…or be somewhere else I guess.

Sunday 2 October

U16 TRAINING: Sunday 2 October Training at home. Please arrive by 9.45am ready to start at 10am.

Strong Academy showing sees off RAF Hawks threat

Ealing Trailfinders Academy 40 – 0 RAF Hawks

The first visit to Vallis Way of an RAF representative aside was a great opportunity for the 23 selected Academy players to show they had learned the lessons from their early season outing against London Scottish.

The first half was a very cagey affair, both sides mounted multiple phases of attack and both sides had well organised and committed defences to repel the assaults.

The deadlock was broken when Academy U18 centre Reon Joseph pounced on a loose pass forced by some great defensive line speed and picked up his own kick through to score under the posts leaving a simple kick for fly half Max McMinn.

A well worked series of attacking phases created space for tight head prop Zaki Chamnaoui to run in for try before Joseph added his second try of the day and third of the season.

the half time score of 19-0 was possibly harsh on the RAF and they would have expected more to show for their possession stats, but the young Trailfinders defence was operating as well as it ever has.

The second half continued much the same way as the first, despite changes of personnel the coordinated efforts in defence and attack if anything improved.

Alfie Hill, marked his debut for the Academy with two well taken tries, the first an interception and the second the result of a turnover at a breakdown. A man of the match performance from the flanker hopefully bodes well for the flanker who has been impressive since his arrival.

Captain and No8 Marcus Lowe scored what was possible the try of the game and a definite candidate for try of the season. Receiving the ball faced with a well organised defence, Marcus decided to chip over the flat defensive line and collected his own kick on the full and accelerated around the covering full back to score a real cracker.

This was a great showing by the boys and sets up our next fixture against the Army U23 on Sunday 16th October again at Vallis Way and again kicking off at 14:30.

We’d love to see as many of you on the touchline to cheer on the lads.

Ealing Trailfinders Academy

Steadman J, Samms, Joseph, Townshend, Adeleke, McMinn, Nurse, Lowe, Avis, Hill, Wake, Ellingham, Chamnaoui, Joyce, Hitchcock T

Replacements

Bannister, Collins, Miller, Kritikos, Segre, Nolan-Hutchinson, Jarvis, Walker.

Scorers

Tries – Joseph (2), Chamnaoui, Hill (2), Lowe

Conversions – McMinn (2), Nolan Hutchinson (3)

A P (Pat) Egan RIP

Pat Egan, past player and Club President passed away peacefully aged 94 years at Cedar Grange Care Home Launceston Cornwall on Sat 17th Sept 2016.

Pat loving husband of Jane. Father to Christopher and Jane. Grandad to Nick, Sean, and Aiden. A keen rugby follower and supporter of Ealing throughout his life he remained in touch with all aspects of the game in his later years.

Private funeral arrangements.

Thanks & Best Regards,

Chris Egan