Ealing Trailfinders Women announce first set of support staff for inaugural season

Ealing Trailfinders Women are pleased to reveal their new Strength and Conditioning team, which will work across the Premier15s team and the club’s pathways at Brunel University, Henley College and Cardinal Newman.

Adam Dowsett – Lead Athletic Performance Coach

With over a decade of experience in Strength and Conditioning, including six years at Wasps Women, Adam will be leading the club’s strength and conditioning across the Premier15s team and guiding the club’s pathways at Brunel University, Henley College and Cardinal Newman. He first started in Strength & Conditioning at Brunel University ten years ago, as he worked closely with the university’s sports scholars, some of them Olympic International athletes, across eight different sports. This is where he first discovered his passion for women’s rugby and this later led to a move to Wasps Women. After six years with the Premier15s side, where they consistently qualified for the playoffs, he moved back to Brunel University this year, working with the women’s programme at the Trailfinders Rugby Academy as they gained promotion into the second tier of British University Rugby.

Fiona ‘Fee’ Pocock – Assistant Strength & Conditioning

Fee is a former Red Rose and an experienced S&C coach who has worked with a wide range of athletes in a variety of settings, from youth athletes to most recently leading the Wasps Women Premier15s programme. Known for her physicality and pace, Fee’s ten year playing career included being an integral part of the England World Cup squad in 2010 as well as winning four Six Nations titles. She also won the Premiership with Harlequins Women in 2017, their first year in the Premiership.

Sam Thirlwell – Head of Strength & Conditioning at Henley College

Sam is entering his fifth year working in S&C, and has experience across both rugby and football. He is continuing his role as S&C coach at Henley College, where he has been during the last two years, and over that time he has helped to produce five England U18s internationals and saw the team achieve second place in their first year in the AOC Performance League. Before being at Henley, he gained experience at Harlequins, Leeds Beckett and Southampton FC and has a BSc in Sport and Exercise Science, as well as an MSc in Applied Strength and Conditioning Science.

The announcement of the S&C team comes following on from the news that Giselle Mather will be joined in her coaching group by Brett Wilkinson, Barney Maddison, Oli Bishop, Kim Oliver and Pat Metcalfe-Jones. To read about that announcement, click here.

When speaking about her new coaches and S&C team, Giselle said: “It is hugely exciting to assemble such a vastly experienced coaching team that are all experts in their areas of the game.

“Their commitment to developing our athletes, both as individuals and collectively as a team, is palpable.

“Having full-time coaching staff will allow them to genuinely support the challenges faced by working athletes as they juggle their training hours alongside their careers and this will be a real area of strength of the Ealing Trailfinders programme moving forward. We cannot wait to get started!!”

The Strength & Conditioning team are the first set of support staff to be announced. In the coming weeks, the Analysis, Nutrition, Psychology, Player Development and Pathway teams will all be revealed.