Author Archives: Paul Clarke

Academy Director John Lacey has announced the team to face the first visit of the RAF Hawks to Vallis Way on Sunday.

There are débuts for flanker Alfie Hill and second row Alex Miller, while Oscar Avis makes his first start of the season having missed the defeat against London Scottish Academy.

Speaking on selection John Lacey said “After the game against Scottish the boys were really disappointed, we had prepared well through preseason and were in good shape, however we made far too many errors and were a little naïve in playing the conditions, add to that 6 players were making their Senior Academy débuts and 3 U18 were involved you can understand why we looked a little disjointed.

This week we have a great opportunity to see how we have learned from our mistakes and if we can manage the game better. Its also great to see a couple more new faces, Alfie has had a bit of a break from playing while in Brazil with the Premiership Rugby programme out there, while Alex is stepping up from the U18 Emerging Player Group for the game, he’s shown excellent focus and works really hard and deserves his place on that alone.

Reon Joseph starts again for the Senior side while still U18, we are very excited about him, he is a fantastic lad and extremely level headed, we think this is going to be a big year for him.

Our loan players are also back home and are keen to show the experience they are gaining in the National Leagues.

We are very proud of our association with Armed Services rugby and having the opportunity to play against the RAF for the first time has caused a real buzz around the squad and coaches, its going to be an interesting game and we can’t wait.”

Kick off on Sunday is at 14:30, entry is as always free, it would be great to see as many supporters as possible cheering the boys on.

Team

1. HITCHCOCK, T
2. JOYCE, C
3. CHAMNAOUI, Z
4. ELLINGHAM, L
5. WAKE, N
6. HILL, A
7. AVIS, O
8. LOWE, M (c)
9. NURSE, A
10. McMINN, M
11. ADELEKE, A
12. TOWNSHEND, L
13. JOSEPH, R
14. SAMMS, R
15. STEADMAN, J

16. BANNISTER, C
17. COLLINS, K
18. MILLER, A
19. KRITKOS, A
20. SEGRE, C
21. NOLAN-HUTCHINSON, C
22. JARVIS, N
23. WALKER, L

The Senior Academy will be playing the RAF for the first time this week as they look to make good their performance against London Scottish. This will be the first time the Academy has played the youngest of the Armed Forces and will complete the set of Services fixtures.

Academy Manager Annie Lyndon said “We are really excited about this weeks game against the Royal Air Force Hawks, we have been playing the other Armed Services each season and its great to add this fixture to our calendar. We are extremely proud of our servicemen and its great to show our support for them in this small way.”

John Lacey added “the boys were well aware that they made lots of errors against Scottish and have been working hard on their decision making. They all have good game time under their belts with their Saturday teams and should be in better shape for Sunday. We don’t know too much about the RAF as a team but the Inter Service Championship has been wide open for a couple of seasons and we have seen that the RAF lads in the UK Armed Forces U23 set up are very good so expect a very tough game”.

Kick off on Sunday 18th September is at 14:30, it would be great to see as many of you as possible supporting the lads.

The start of a new season brings new opportunities and challenges and Senior Academy prop forward Zaki Chamnaoui has really hit the ground running.

Following a strong showing last season at London 1 which saw him receive the Player of the Season award with his loan club Harrow, Zaki has jumped 2 levels this summer and will play his club rugby on loan at Henley Hawks in National League 2 (South).

Academy Director John Lacey said “Zaki has been a fantastic player to work with and should serve as a great example to any aspiring young player. He joined us 3 seasons ago and has always been full of enthusiasm with a willingness to listen and work hard. He is a joy to coach and is a excellent example to the young players in the squad.

Zaki has worked extremely hard during his time with the Senior Academy and his development has been on a good upward gradient.

Zaki had a strong season last year and was recognised by the players and coaches at Harrow as a real prospect. We have taken a chance this year and jumped 2 levels with him now playing on loan up at Henley, after a strong pre season programme he has made the bench for their first League game on Saturday at Redruth.
We have a really good relationship with the guys at Henley and Zaki wont be short of friendly faces with former Academy players Louis Flynn and Dyneal Fessal also in the Squad for Saturday along with former Senior Academy player and now Ealing Trailfinders Pro Squad prop Ziana Alexis also in the match day squad for the trip to Cornwall
We wish him all the best for his first outing at National 2 and hope he goes well when his time comes.”

For updates on how Zaki and all the other Academy players are going follow our Twitter feed @ETFacademy

As August draws to a close pre season games start to come thick and fast! The Academy players have been hard at it since mid June and its a great feeling for the players to get back on the pitch.

Academy Director John Lacey said “All the guys have worked really hard through the summer and have been making some great gains. Zaki Chamnaoui and Marcus Lowe have started to train and play with their loan club Henley Hawks who play at Level 4 in National League 2 (South). Zaki played at Level 6 in London 1 (North) side Harrow last season and was voted the Player of the Season. He has already impressed at Henley and should look ahead to a great season. Noah Jarvis has returned on loan to his former club Wimbledon who play at Level 5 in National League 3 (London & SE), Noah joined us from there this season and will look to add considerably to his 8 games at that level last season.

The rest of the Squad will join up with the Men’s section at the club playing in Zoo Shield 2, good performances will lead to movement up the RFU levels, I know the boys are ambitious and will be keen to catch their respective coaches eye with a view to developing further.

It was good to see a large number of the Squad get their first run out of the season yesterday when the Men’s Section took on London Cornish, given it was many of the players first taste of the adult game I was really pleased with how the boys acquitted themselves. Luca Townshend who has been the stand out performer in training so far was especially impressive.”

The Academy U18 and U18 Emerging Players Group have been back in training since the start of July and we have had some exciting players join the group, with the bulk of the LV=U18 Cup squad still eligible it looks a strong squad going into the new season.

There is a great opportunity to see how the boys are progressing on Wednesday evening as the Academy U23 take on local rivals London Scottish Academy under lights at Trailfinders, kick off is at 19:30 and it would be great to see as many supporters as possible.

The Senior Academy preseason programme began on Monday with endurance and strength testing now well underway.

It seems a logical time to reflect on our achievements of last season.

We had some notable successes on the pitch with double victories over both London Scottish and Birmingham Moseley Academies as well as first win against Bedford Blues.

We proudly continued our association with the Armed Services rugby community and managed another win over the Army U23 but slipped to defeat against the Navy and UK Armed Forces U23 sides.

Off the pitch we have continued to develop young players who have often been overlooked by others and have ben able to get excellent exposure for some of our players.

Josh Steadman trained extensively with the Pro Squad over last summer, Tyler Bush and Marcus Lowe both had extended training periods with them too. Reon Joseph also had some ‘experience days’ with the full time players during his Easter holidays, a fantastic opportunity for an U17. Two further players who joined us late in the season off the back of our growing reputation also gained trials with the 1st XV, Charlie Fatoma (Trinity School and England Counties U18) and Zianna Alexis (Amersham & Chiltern and England Counties U20) made big impressions in their time with us.

We are extremely proud that Zi has been invited to train with the Pro Squad for Preseason and Charlie has been offered a development contract, but it is a special achievement that Tyler Bush has become the first Academy player to graduate through Mini, Youth, Emerging Player Group and Senior Academy into the full time Pro squad.

We thank Ben Ward and all the Pro Squad coaches and players for their support of the Academy and making time to look at these young players.

Two further players leave us next season with National League contracts, Louis Flynn and Dyneal Fessal have both earned a place in the Henley Hawks Squad for 2016-17. Louis joined us from Ruislip (level 6) and Dyneal from Hillingdon Abbots (Level 10) both have made great strides during their time with us and we wish them every success with their new club.

The Academy U18 Squad has also seen its fair share of success with a fantastic win over Cambridge RFC to win the LV=U18 Cup, 13 of the match day squad were U17 so we are in a very good position for next season. We also won the Bedford Blues U19 10-a-side Plate Competition.

The new season brings great opportunity, who will be the next to make the step up to National League Rugby and possible full time Pro exposure….we shall see….