Vote for your Ealing Trailfinders Player of the Month for September.

Following an exciting start to the 2022/23 season, it’s now time to vote for your September Player of the Month!

The players nominated are:

• Bobby De Wee (Second-Row)
• Carlo Tizzano (Flanker)
• Max Bodilly (Centre)
• Jonah Holmes (Fullback / Wing)

CLICK HERE to vote for your Player of the Month. 

Voting closes at 5pm Monday 3rd October. The winner will be announced via our website and social media channels on Wednesday 5th October.

Ealing Trailfinders are delighted to announce that Jonathan Thomas will assist the coaching team as a Forwards Consultant.

Thomas (JT) joins us with a wealth of experience and expertise to help improve the team. He has previously been Head Coach at Worcester Warriors, from 2020 up until the start of this year. Before that he spent four years at Bristol Bears as Defence and Forwards Coach learning under Pat Lam. He helped the Bears achieve promotion to the Premiership and win the Challenge Cup (their first ever European title).

JT took up his role at Bristol immediately after finishing his hugely successful playing career. He represented Swansea, Ospreys and Worcester Warriors throughout his 14 year spell as a player. He was capped 67 times by the Welsh National team, starting every game during their 2005 and 2008 Grand-Slam winning campaigns. He went to two World Cups (2003 and 2007) and appeared in every Six Nations squad between 2004 and 2011.

Lam described him as “excellent team man and an outstanding young coach” when he left Bristol and JT has already started helping the squad.

JT said: “I’m really pleased to be here at Ealing and everyone at the club has been so welcoming, that I feel like I’ve been here for ages.

“From speaking to Wardy (Ben Ward) it just felt like a really natural fit. I’ve played in this league before, I’ve coached in this league before and so I know how tough the Championship is and hopefully I can make a positive difference.”

Director of Rugby Ben Ward said: “I’m really pleased to have been able to recruit someone of JT’s quality and know-how to help aid our coaching team. He is an incredibly exciting coach with Premiership experience and also the knowledge of how to get a team promoted from the Championship after being part of the Bristol staff that did so.

“He’s already slotted in well to our setup and I know the boys are learning a lot from him.”

To listen to JT’s full interview, click here.

This appointment comes after the mutually agreed release of Forwards and Defence coach Glen Townson. Due to family reasons, Glen was looking for a role closer to his home in Bristol. Everyone at Ealing Trailfinders thanks Glen for his work at the club, both as a coach and a player, and wishes him all the best for the future.

As the new Championship season got underway, it wasn’t just against Doncaster that some Trailfinders were in action.

In a new segment for this season, each week we’ll round-up all the impacts made by our loan or duel-registered players over the weekend.

This week there were Trailfinders in action for Bedford Blues and London Scottish.

Coventry 26-18 Bedford Blues

On the opening night of the new Championship season, centre James Little and back-row Ollie Newman both ran out for Bedford Blues in their defeat at Coventry.

Their involvement was relatively last minute, as it had appeared that Bedford may have struggled to field a team due to their strategic partners, Northampton Saints, having two fixtures within 24-hours of the Blues’ league opener. Pre-game, Bedford Director of Rugby Mike Rayer said: “We’re indebted to Ben Ward and Pat Lam (Bristol Bears DoR) for their assistance this week going into our first game. Preparation has been pretty good all things considered.”

Despite a quick start, Bedford’s ill-discipline ultimately cost them as they conceded 22 penalties which helped Coventry to their eight point victory.

James was the more effective of the pair, making the second most carries by constantly charging through the midfield and was one of only two players to make an offload for Bedford as they were prevented from playing their traditional free flowing, attacking rugby.

Ollie, returning to the club he spent the past two seasons on dual-registration with from Northampton Saints, was as tenacious as ever, disrupting the breakdown throughout the contest.

Between the two of them they made 13 tackles, including two from James within two metres of the line when trying  to repel the Coventry attack, but ultimately the hosts were too powerful at the driving maul and built a platform to secure victory.

London Scottish 10-31 Nottingham

Prop Elliot Chilvers and utility-back Josh Gillespie have both been performing well for London Scottish throughout preseason. Elliot started in the Exiles’ strong performance at home against Harlequins a fortnight ago, while Josh got on the scoresheet during their impressive 34-26 away win at URC side Edinburgh.

Coming into Saturday’s fixture at the Athletic Ground, Scottish were rightfully optimistic about getting a result, but fell to a clinical Nottingham performance.

Josh started the game and looked industrious for his 60 minutes, constantly looking for work. Elliot impressed off the bench, despite the fate of the game already being sealed when he came onto the pitch. He worked hard, winning several scrum penalties in the final quarter and also helping push over hooker Austin Wallis for Scottish’s final try of the game.