Author Archives: Paul Clarke

The Academy take on local rivals London Welsh Griffins tomorrow at Vallis Way. In a repeat of last seasons festive fixture at Old Deer Park.

The squad features many of the Academy’s distance members (those away at University). We are sure will be keen to show they have continued their development away from the club.

Will Day captains the team in Marcus Lowe’s absence due to injury. Scrum half Conor Segre returns to the bench having recovered from a shoulder injury.

Academy Director, John Lacey said “It seems like an eternity since we last played. The unfortunate late cancellation by the Royal Navy really left a hole in our programme. Tomorrow gives us a great chance to see how we are improving. We are keen to put together a strong performance.

There are also two lads making their Senior Academy debuts. James Wilson joined us from London Irish Academy in the summer but was recovering from a knee operation. He has worked really hard on his rehab and has impressed in training so we’re excited to see how he goes. He joins U18 prop Harry Robbins who has been an absolute dream to work with since he arrived from Ruislip last season. Harry was a member of our Emerging Player Group last season. We have been keen to see him play up but have had to wait for his 18th birthday to get him involved.”

We would love to see as many of you as possible on the touchline tomorrow. Kick off is at 13:30, see you there.

Follow us on Twitter for up to date news @ETFacademy

Unfortunately due to circumstances outside of our control, Sunday’s fixture against the Royal Navy has had to be cancelled by our opponents.

We are sure these decisions are not taken lightly. The fixture will not be rearranged.

Ealing Trailfinders Academy 27 – 30 Nottingham Academy

The U20’s programme kicked off this season with a narrow home loss to Nottingham Academy, 27 -30 after a final gasp try saw Nottingham clinch the victory.

An early penalty, converted by Max McMinn gave Ealing Academy the lead after the first couple of minutes of sustained pressure. Unfortunately, for the next 25 minutes Nottingham piled on the pressure leading to a penalty, drop goal and a penalty try awarded from sustained scrum dominance.

Ealing then came back into the game for the last 10 minutes of the first half, Sparked by some dominant carries by props Akeem Eubank-Anderson and Kadeem Collins and some brilliant offloading saw Ciaran Poynter cross under the posts for what seemed like a vital try to give the Academy side a new lease of life.

Right from the restart, a brilliant break from promising centre Ollie Morris saw him dragged down metres short of the try line, good physical attacking play around the breakdown saw Matt Hodson go over for a try to give the Academy the narrow lead going into half time 15 -13 up.

Both teams pushed hard with ball in hand. Ealing spotted a blindside opportunity leaving the Nottingham defender in an all or nothing situation… he timed it right to juggle the interception to allow Nottingham back into the game with a converted try.

Ealing again countered and 17-year-old Man of the Match Henry O’Meara showed amazing work rate all game and his efforts allowed Ciaran Poynter to put flying winder James Booth away into the corner to even the scores up at 20-20.

A clever cross field kick meant Nottingham crossed again, this time unconverted.

Scrum half Josh Steadman took the tiniest of opportunities to run half the length of the field before again falling just short of the line, Lock Dante West kept the attack alive and Ollie Morris crossed under the posts to give Ealing the narrowest of leads going into the last minutes of the game.

Unfortunately for the young Ealing side, experience showed in closing out tough games as Nottingham pounced on the opportunity of some more scrum dominance and crossed again with another clever cross field kick, leaving the end result 27-30 to the visitors.

U20 Head Coach, Tom Gamage said “Today was a great opportunity for the younger players to experience what it is like playing at this level and ultimately gives us the learning opportunities to go away and improve for the next game. Nottingham were very physical and we had to front up to that, however their dominance at the set piece and lineout made life very hard for us.”

Academy Coach Tom Gamage has named the side for Sundays clash against the British Army at the Aldershot Stadium. Tom will be leading on the day as part of his development while he studies for his Level 3 Coaching course.

The team will look to build on the performance against the Royal Air Force two weeks ago where they ran in 10 tries.

U19 Prop Akeem Eubank-Anderson starts at Tight Head after two impressive games for the Men’s section at the club and No 8 Zaki Gregory starts in an otherwise familiar pack. Behind them the Steadman brothers return to scrum half and full back, while Callum Nolan-Hutchinson replaces Max McMinn at fly half.

Flanker Travis Gifford looks set to make his début for the Academy from the bench, having recently arrived from Australia on trial. Also looking to make his first appearance for the Senior Academy is U18 Emerging Player Group scrum half Conor Barry, who has pit in some impressive performances with the Academy U18 and in training.

1. Tim Hitchcock
2. Chris Joyce
3. Akeem Eubank-Anderson
4. Aurele Armstrong
5. Oscar Avis
6. Will Day
7. Alfie Hill
8. Zak Gregory
9. Josh Steadman
10. Callum Nolan-Hutchinson
11. Rasaan Samms
12. Luca Townshend
13. Ollie Morris
14. Michael Rugely
15. Lewis Steadman

16. Charlie Bannister
17. Matt Hodson
18. Zaki Chamnaoui
19. Travis Gifford
20. Marcus Lowe
21. Jordan Richardson
22. Conor Barry
23. Ben Bridgewood

Kick off at the Army Stadium, Aldershot is at 14.30, all support is welcome.