Since its inception in December of 2023, the Ealing Trailfinders Elite Pathway (ETEP) has developed enormously, providing professional academy level coaching to around 60 talented boys from across London and the home counties.  As Ealing Trailfinders’ initial pathway programme, the ETEP’s aim is to nurture outstanding players, bringing them through into the Trailfinders Academy once they reach university-age and ultimately to play first team rugby for the professional side.

The ETEP is led by Matt Ingram, supported by Ealing Trailfinders director of rugby, Ben Ward, and the senior professional coaches and physios, with training at Vallis Way every second Monday. Sessions test and stretch the players’ knowledge of the game to further their understanding and skills and take their rugby development to the highest level.

Alongside the training sessions, Ealing Trailfinders staff give players in-depth video performance analyses alongside continual player-led performance reviews to further develop their rugby knowledge.

Says Ingram: “ETEP is a program that started out small last year and has gone from strength to strength quite rapidly this season. It has been a great addition to the Academy space here at Ealing Trailfinders. It has provided lots of formally identified players, both with previous academy history and not, the opportunity to experience a high-level academy performance environment to develop their core skills and game understanding.”

“Sessions are designed to promote and maximise learning opportunities for players, with ongoing education taking place remotely in between training evenings to ensure tactical retention and growth. We have seen massive improvement from all players in the squad in a relatively short span of time, and I’m very excited and confident in what the future holds for the program and our players as they progress through our professional pathway”.

Over the Christmas period, the U17/U18 cohort took part in the first ever game block for the programme, with development matches involving all players away against Coventry and Scarlets, then for a selected 23 facing Stade Francais away in Paris.  An incredible experience for the lads, whilst the results didn’t go our way, for a first outing the sides did extremely well and the matches gave a fantastic introduction into academy-level rugby.  With upcoming home fixtures against Coventry (15th February 5pm KO) and England Lambs (22nd February 3pm KO) the hope is for a good crowd to cheer on the sides at “fortress Vallis”.

Currently six boys from the Ealing youth set up are involved in the programme at U17 level – Rio Waddington, Ollie Isherwood, William Squire, Tommaso Polleri, Freddie Ruzicka and Isaac Slade.  Commenting on the programme, Isherwood said: “ETEP is a unique setup where we get to work with professional coaches who have experience in the top levels of rugby. Recently having the opportunity to represent Ealing against various academies was a challenging but really exciting experience”.  Waddington added: “The game blocks have provided a really good opportunity to test ourselves against well organised teams. This feeds back into our development at training and supports us all getting stronger as players and overall as an ETEP unit”.

Ealing Trailfinders Director of Player Personnel Alex Shaw said: “We’ve enjoyed having the lads from Ealing Trailfinders Youth in since the inception of ETEP midway through last season. They’ve shown excellent core skills and responded well to the coaches and the messages we have been trying to convey. Even in such a short time, we’ve seen real growth in all the lads.”

“With a number of sessions left between now and the end of the season, we are hopeful we can continue to accelerate their development heading into the offseason, before welcoming them back as U18s later this year.”

Whilst the programme is open to outstanding players from across the southeast, one hope is that as the programme grows, others will come through from Ealing Trailfinders Youth Section to be selected for ETEP and who knows, perhaps one day a “home grown” player will pull on the Ealing Green for the pro side!