Trailfinders Women face Loughborough Lightning at home on Sunday 13th October. KO 12:45.
Join us for a full day of activities.
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Ealing Trailfinders next game at home to Ampthill.
Saturday 19th October KO 15:00
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Thank you to everyone who met Kie Tamai and Bella the Bear at the 𝐉𝐚𝐩𝐚𝐧 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐬𝐮𝐫𝐢 in London on Sunday!
Girls Youth Section Update
Our Girls Youth Section encompasses the age groups of U12 to Under 18’s and is in an exciting stage of evolution. With the girls and women’s game nationwide growing at a rapid pace Ealing Trailfinders will field two full sides at Under 12 and Under 14 level this season. We are also helping to build the foundations for an Under 16 side with our Community Department colleagues.
Our Girls Youth Section trains twice a week – with the core session being 6.30 – 8pm on Wednesday’s and this is complemented by the Community Department’s ‘Get In The Game’ open girls session from 5 – 6.30pm on Friday Nights. A full calendar of Sunday fixtures, festivals and occasional trainings with our U12 and U14 cluster partners at Richmond RFC are well underway too.
We are very proud to be associated with a fantastic local sponsor in Apple Montessori Nursery who has been very supportive of the club over recent seasons. Sponsorship from Apple Montessori Nursery allows all Girls Youth and Ealing 1871 Women’s players to wear new bespoke shorts. The Girls Youth Section now has its own Ealing Trailfinders kit with eye catching purple striping. We are grateful for the help of Club Chairman Adrian Hobbs, Treasurer Kean Marden and Club Shop Manager Bernadette Weeks in facilitating the new kit which is modelled by long-serving Minis and now Girls U14s player Rose.
First Girls Youth Festival of 2024/25 Season
On Sunday 22nd September 19 girls from Ealing Trailfinders made the rain-soaked journey to Cobham RFC for their annual Girls-only 10’s Festival. Ealing participated in an U10/U11 combo-side including a mix of girls who have come through Minis rugby and those new to the sport. Across the three games there were some very good individual and team tries and throughout the morning the girls ruck, support play, ball handling and confidence really improved.
The Ealing Trailfinders Under 12s played three games against Hove, Ironsides/Wasps and Cobham and in sometimes challenging conditions came away with two good wins and a close loss.
The Ealing Trailfinders Under 14s played three games against tough opposition from Sutton and Epsom, Reeds and Old Reigatians. The U14s started with a well deserved win and rounded out the enjoyable and very well organised Cobham festival with two very tough, but character and experience building defeats.
The Ealing Girls Youth section will now regroup for two weeks of aligned training before heading to our second Surrey Festival in Guilford on Sunday 6th October.
On Sunday the Ealing u14s made the trip to Surrey to make their first appearance at the annual Guildfordians festival. Their previous festival outing at Cobham two weeks prior had given the girls an insight into the strong and well organised sides they would face in their maiden season at U14 level, and Sunday was no different. The first two games against Guildford/Camberley and Tonbridge were tough lessons for the Ealing girls who tried their best to deal with the impressive tackling, ruck speed and powerful ball carrying of both sides. When the girls managed to move the ball wide through their hands, they looked dangerous and caused the opposition sides problems exploiting the space and breaking through the lines, only to be thwarted by some impressive last ditch tackles.
The third game was against a Twickenham / Wasps cluster in which the girls played their best rugby of the day, staying in the game despite being down at half time, before taking the lead which they held onto until the last play of the match, unfortunately being unable to keep out a final drive by the opposition’s most powerful ball carrier.
The girls closed out their festival against Dorking and took the upper hand with two quick tries. As the conditions worsened, Dorking came back into the match, themselves scoring two quick tries, before sealing the win with the last play of the match, much to the disappointment of the Ealing girls.
Despite the tough matches there was a lot of positives for the girls to take from the day, and much to build upon in training. Star of the day was Catherine, with special mentions for Eydie and Iga for their tackling and passing, respectively. A big thank you to all the parents and coaches who came to support the girls. A special thanks also to Helena and Apple Montessori for their sponsorship of the girls new green shorts which made their debut on Sunday alongside the new Girls Youth shirts and socks!
All eyes now turn towards this Sunday as the girls prepare for their first 15 a side match away at Old Grammarians
It was overall a good performance from the lads in the League match. A well-balanced game that could have gone either way.
We came back from a slow start due to some missed tackles and offloads.
These missed tackles gave RPR the advantage and led to them scoring twice.
A few penalties were conceded due to not releasing but also a lot of turnovers were won from good tackles.
Some of the positives came when we had the ball and kept on it. We were punishing the opposition, lineouts were very good and we won a few in their 22 which gave us 2 tries.
The forwards used their pods well and made lots of metres from it, and the backs when given ball in hand made lots of ground as well.
Overall, it was a game that could’ve been won but a few mistakes gave RPR the chance to tie it up.
The work rate and effort from the boys was very good.
Match Report from Ealing Colts Captain
The U12’s travelled to Amersham for their first competitive tournament on Sunday, reaching the final unbeaten. They came top in their group after facing strong opposition and made it through the semi-finals. Ealing met Old Fullarians in the final with the game finishing a draw. Both teams scored the same number of tries in their group matches, so the winner was decided on tries conceded with Old Fullarians taking the cup.
It was a rough way to end the tournament for the U12s. They played a tough tournament with no substitutes, against much larger squads. The boys were battered and exhausted and played with extraordinary strength, passion and team spirit. They held their heads high. A fantastic display and both the parents and coaches were incredibly proud.
The Ealing under12s girls team clustered with Richmond and Ruislip to form – GERRR (Girls Ealing Richmond & Ruislip Rugby). The team wore with pride their new Ealing Trailfinders jerseys and was great to see them looking like one team.
GERRR played four matches against The Diamonds (London Irish, London Welsh, Reeds Weybridge and Weybridge), Ashford, Farnham and Beckham/Sidcup.
Winning three of the four matches – (see table below). The matches against The Diamonds, Ashford and Farnham were all closely contested, only losing to the The Diamonds (who we play again in a couple of weeks looking to reverse the score.)
The standard of play for GERRR is continually improving. Increasing involvement in all aspects of the game by all players. There were several good teams tries going through multiple phases of play and a number of great team defensive efforts. Overall, the attack and defence improve each week. The clustered team is progressing well and will benefit from a few more combined training sessions.
We were lucky enough to have Ealing Trailfinders players Ella Amory and Liz Musgrove on hand, who awarded player of the tournament to Doireann Keogh.
TREDS was well observed by all players in all teams. It was a great days’ rugby in a well organised tournament.
All the girls enjoyed themselves and will be back for more rugby.
U14s afternoon at the Ealing v Doncaster game
On Saturday 5th October a group of 25+ U14 players, parents, coaches and siblings had a great afternoon in the sunshine watching the Championship fixture between Ealing Trailfinders RFC v Doncaster RFC which tickets provided courtesy of the Community department. We all sat together in the East stand with the hope that, with Ealing attacking in this direction, there would be lots of action. After a very tense first half and a tight game all round we decided to decamp to the other end of the pitch for the second half hoping for more tries down that end! It was a highly competitive game with great tries scored by both teams. Sadly the end result didn’t quite go Ealing’s way so we decided to retire to the bar to rehydrate and discuss the result in details. A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon in the sunshine.