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Is this Britain's most comprehensive university rugby programme?
Head of Recruitment at Ealing Trailfinders, Alex Shaw, breaks down what they believe is the UK’s most comprehensive university rugby programme.
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English rugby, with its large and physically gifted player pool, has very little difficulty bringing through new waves of future stars.
Whether that is the unerring workrate and determination of a technical thoroughbred like Jonny Wilkinson, the raw physical potential of someone who has won the genetic lottery like Manu Tuilagi, or even the combination of the two in someone such as Maro Itoje, English rugby has little trouble identifying, nurturing and developing them.
(Continue reading below…)
Big Jim and Goodey are joined by Italy international George Biagi, who updates The Rugby Pod on how coronavirus is affecting his country
Where English rugby can frequently let itself down, however, is in the identification of players just below that level. With such an abundant player pool and the financial strength to recruit heavily from abroad, professional rugby in England is not a kind place to the late developers, the diamonds in the rough or those who have transitioned late to the sport.
Pound-for-pound, English rugby doesn’t even come close to being the most efficient or successful nation in world rugby at tapping into its own player pool.
There are lots of reasons around this, but ultimately the combination of having to make a call on whether or not a player is a professional at 18 years of age, a salary cap in the Gallagher Premiership and an ease with which senior players can be lured from southern hemisphere makes England an unforgiving rugby environment for players who aren’t polished technically and physically ready immediately or very quickly after they leave school.
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That is something that Ealing Trailfinders are looking to address with their partnership with Brunel University, an academy programme which the Championship club believes is most comprehensive. First up, a declaration: I have been working this season as Ealing’s head of recruitment so the nurturing of young players is something close to my heart.
The idea of giving players an extra three or four years to develop while they get a degree is nothing new. It was the primary route into the game before the professional era and even now there are some excellent programmes operating at institutions such as Loughborough, Leeds Beckett and Durham to name but a few. But what sets Brunel apart from the crowd is that is entirely operated, funded and designed to work with a professional rugby club.
In addition to the university’s already impressive facilities, its partnership with Ealing Trailfinders has seen the club commit to building the university a new 4G rugby pitch, a gym which will be larger and more well-equipped than any boasted by a Premiership club and an indoor performance centre.
These new facilities, combined with the university’s already considerable assets such as the indoor athletics centre, spas, saunas and gyms which have produced many household names in athletics and rugby, Ealing believe scholars at Brunel will have access to the finest sporting facilities.
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The programme is also staffed by Ealing with a number of the club’s senior coaches, such as Steve Neville, Andy Holloway and Paddy Gill, taking on key academy coaching roles and they will be joined by incoming academy head coach Glen Townson and academy transition coach James Brooks next season.
? Want to join our Academy @EalingTF_Brunel and study whilst pursuing a rugby career? Email academy@etprm.com to get all of the information! pic.twitter.com/a2ceaXtcNu
— Ealing Trailfinders & Brunel Scholarship Programme (@EalingTF_Brunel) March 26, 2019
Academy manager Ty Sterry and Brunel head of rugby Gareth Rise both oversee the programme and the club also provides full-time strength and conditioning coaches, physios and video analysts, making it arguably the most well-staffed programme in the country. Trailfinders director of rugby Ben Ward even takes some sessions with the academy.
Beyond that, the club also provides players with all their nutritional supplements, comprehensive medical insurance that allows for injuries to be treated immediately and with the highest care, and opportunities for impressive players to join the senior training sessions at Ealing Trailfinders.
Many of this year’s performance group have regularly trained with Ealing, in addition to going out on loan at clubs in National 1 and National 2 in order to further push themselves and develop within the senior game.
Calling all players that want to experience the comprehensive coaching @SD_Neville provides to our scholar forwards needs to check this out. #mostcomprehensive follow us for more info. #joinus #scholarships #weneverstop https://t.co/aw0dBDjhTh
— Ealing Trailfinders & Brunel Scholarship Programme (@EalingTF_Brunel) March 17, 2020
While the programme leans heavily on the model found in US college sports, of participants being scholar athletes and enjoying a professional-level rugby programme while they get their degree and ensure they have options for their post-rugby careers, scholars are expected to keep up with their academic commitments.
Efforts are made to fit their university schedule around their rugby duties, but attendance and satisfactory grades are important and this is something where the Brunel programme differs from some of the similar programmes in the US sports systems.
The programme is designed to provide scholars with an array of exit routes from Brunel, with the university boasting a highly laudable employment rate – at £28k per annum or above – or further study percentage of 95 per cent just six months after graduation.
? ACADEMY HIGHLIGHTS:
See the best of the action from the final league match of the campaign for @EalingTF_Brunel ?https://t.co/PjXrF0hmJu
— Ealing Trailfinders (@ealingtfrugby) March 23, 2020
These range from the purely academic route of scholars taking up professional roles in their chosen academic careers and playing rugby at the amateur level or semi-professional level, to players emerging with full-time professional rugby contracts.
Of course, the desired exit route from Ealing’s perspective is for players to have developed sufficiently over their three- or four-year degree to earn a professional contract at the club.
Our desire ultimately is for the bulk of our senior recruitment each summer to come from our own academy rather than other sources. We also recognise the opportunity for a number of players on the programme to take up professional contracts at high-level clubs around the world upon graduation.
Worth reaching out to Ruben if you’re interested in @EalingTF_Brunel next season. https://t.co/scUXfcWaAj
— Alex Shaw (@alexshawsport) March 20, 2020
At the senior level at Ealing, our ambition is to be a Premiership rugby club as soon as possible and in order to do that and not only establish ourselves at that level in a way which can be sustainable for the long-term, we need a productive academy. That is why we are investing so much in our programme at Brunel.
By giving players a professional environment in which there are tests and challenges asked of them, without the need for a short-term return on investment that you see with players professionally contracted at 18 years of age, we believe we can get more out of the individuals on the programme than they would be able to achieve in any other environment.
This is the first full year of the programme and the results have been clear to see with the Brunel 1st XV having won every game in their league and a number of the freshmen having impressed on loan at clubs such as Henley, Blackheath, London Irish Wild Geese, Sutton and Epsom, and Camerbley.
Those players have taken their first steps this season into the men’s game and potential professional future within it. If you’re interested in joining them next season, you can request more information at academy@etprm.com.
Alex Shaw is Head of Recruitment at Ealing Trailfinders
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Comments on RugbyPass
The greatest Springbok coach of all time is entirely on the money. Rassie and Jacques have given the south african public a great few years, but the success of the springbok selection policy will need to be judged in light of what comes next. The poor condition that the provincial system is currently in doesn’t bode well for the next few years of international rugby, and the insane 2026 schedule that the Boks have lined up could also really harm both provincial and international consistency.
15 Go to commentsJake White is a brilliant coach and a master in the press. This is another masterclass in media relations and PR but its also a very narrow view with arguments that dont always hold water. White wants his team to win, he wants the best players in SA and wants his team competitive. You however have to face up to the reality of a poor exchange rate and big clubs with big budgets. SA Rugby cant compete and unless it can find more money SA players will keep leaving regardless of Springbok eligibility and this happened in 2015 - 2017. Also rugby is not cricket. Cricket has 3 formats and T20 cricket is where the money is at. When it comes to club vs country the IPL is king but that wont happen because the international calendar does not clash with the club calendar in rugby. So the argument about rugby going down the same path as cricket is really a non-starter
15 Go to commentsNZ rugby seem not to have learnt anything from professional rugby. Super rugby was dying and SA left before they died with the competition. SA rugby did a u turn on their approach to international players playing overseas and such players are now selected for Bok teams. As much as each country would love to retain their players playing in local competitions, this is the way the world is evolving my friends. Move with it or stay 20 years behind the times. One more thing. NZ rugby hierarchy think they are the big cheese. Take a more humble approach guys. You do not seem to have your players best interests at heart.
3 Go to commentsBeaches? In Cardiff? Where?
1 Go to commentsHe is right , the Crusaders will be a threat. Scott Barrett, ( particularly), Fergus Burke , Codie Taylor, ( from sabbatical) etc due back soon for the Crusaders. There are others like Zach Gallagher too. People can right the Crusaders off, Top 8 , here we come !!
1 Go to commentsWe will always struggle for money to match the other sides but the least the WRU can do is invest properly in Welsh rugby. Too much has been squandered on vanity projects like the hotel and roof walk amongst others which will never see a massive return. Hanging the 4 pro sides out to dry over the last decade is now coming back to bite the WRU financially as well as on the pitch. You reap what you sow.
1 Go to commentsWhat do you get if you cross a doctor with a fish? A plastic sturgeon
14 Go to commentsWhat happened to feleti Kaitu’u? Hasnt played in a while right?
1 Go to commentsGregor I just can’t agree with you. You are trying to find something that just isn’t there. Jordie Barrett has signed until 2028. By the end of that he would have spent probably 11-12 years on Super Rugby and you say he can’t possibly have one season playing somewhere else. It is absurd. What about this scenario, the NZR play hard ball and he decides to leave and play overseas. How would that affect the competition. There seems to be an agenda by certain journalists to push certain agendas and don’t like it when it’s not to their liking. I fully support the NZR on this. Gregor needs to get a life.
3 Go to commentsHope he stays as believe he can do a great job.
1 Go to commentsMake what step up? Manie has a World Cup winner’s medal around his neck and changed the way the Springboks can play. He doesn’t have anything to prove to anyone. The win record of the Boks with him in the team is tremendous. Sacha can be wonderful and I hope he has a very succesful Bok career, but comparing him to Manie in terms of the next Bok flyhalf is very strange. Manie is the incumbent (not the next) and doing pretty incredibly.
1 Go to comments00 😍 U
1 Go to commentsSabbaticals have helped keep NZ’s very best talent in the country on long term deals - this fact has been left out of this article. Much like the articles calling to allow overseas players to be selected, yet can only name one player currently not signed to NZR who would be selected for the ABs. And in the entire history of NZ players leaving to play overseas, literally only 4 or 5 have left in their prime as current ABs. (Piatau, Evans, Hayman, Mo’unga,?) Yes Carter got an injury while playing in France 16 years ago, but he also got a tournament ending injury at the 2011 World Cup while taking mid-week practice kicks at goal. Maybe Jordie gets a season-ending injury while playing in Ireland, maybe he gets one next week against the Brumbies. NZR have many shortcomings, but keeping the very best players in the country and/or available for ABs selection is not one of them. Likewise for workload management - players missing 2 games out of 14 is hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Again let’s use some facts - did it stop the Crusaders winning SR so many times consecutively when during any given week they would be missing 2 of their best players? The whole idea of the sabbatical is to reward your best players who are willing to sign very long term deals with some time to do whatever they want. They are not handed out willy-nilly, and at nowhere near the levels that would somehow devalue Super Rugby. In this particular example JB is locked in with NZR for what will probably (hopefully) be the best years of his career, hard to imagine him not sticking around for a couple more after for a Lions tour and one more world cup. He has the potential to become the most capped AB of all time. A much better outcome than him leaving NZ for a minimum of 3 years at the age of 27, unlikely to ever play for the ABs again, which would be the likely alternative.
3 Go to commentsJake White talks more sense than anything I've read in the last 5 years. Hope someone's listening.
15 Go to commentsThe Springboks tried going down the road of only picking home-based players and it was an unmitigated disaster in 2016 and 2017. Picking overseas-based players has been one of the main reason the Boks have done so well since 2018, not only because of the quality Rassie could call on, but because of the knowledge and experience those players brought into camp from England, France and Japan. With some of the big names playing abroad it also gave younger players in SA the chance to break through at franchise level. Would we have seen the emergence of a Ruan Nortje if RG and Lood were still at the Bulls? Not so sure. I understand why Jake would want to block players leaving since his job depends on good results but it’s an approach that would take Bok rugby back to the bad old days and no South African wants to see that.
15 Go to commentsExeter were thumped by 38 points. And they only had to hop on a train.
39 Go to commentsI am De Groot.
1 Go to commentsHad hoped you might write an article on this game, Nick. It’s a good one. Things have not gone as smoothly for ROG since beating Leinster last year at the Aviva in the CC final. LAR had the Top 14 Final won till Raymond Rhule missed a simple tackle on the excellent Ntamack, and Toulouse reaped the rewards of just staying in the fight till the death. Then the disruption of the RWC this season. LAR have not handled that well, but they were not alone, and we saw Pau heading the Top 14 table at one stage early season. I would think one of the reasons for the poor showing would have to be that the younger players coming through, and the more mature amongst the group outside the top 25/30, are not as strong as would be hoped for. I note that Romain Sazy retired at the end of last season. He had been with LAR since 2010, and was thus one of their foundation players when they were promoted to Top 14. Records show he ended up with 336 games played with LAR. That is some experience, some rock in the team. He has been replaced for the most part by Ultan Dillane. At 30, Dillane is not young, but given the chances, he may be a fair enough replacement for Sazy. But that won’be for more than a few years. I honestly know little of the pathways into the LAR setup from within France. I did read somewhere a couple of years ago that on the way up to Top 14, the club very successfully picked up players from the academies of other French teams who were not offered places by those teams. These guys were often great signings…can’t find the article right now, so can’t name any….but the Tadgh Beirne type players. So all in all, it will be interesting to see where the replacements for all the older players come from. Only Lleyd’s and Rhule from SA currently, both backs. So maybe a few SA forwards ?? By contrast, Leinster have a pretty clear line of good players coming through in the majority of positions. Props maybe a weak spot ? And they are very fleet footed and shrewd in appointing very good coaches. Or maybe it is also true that very good coaches do very well in the Leinster setup. So, Nick, I would fully concurr that “On the evidence of Saturday’s semi-final between the two clubs, the rebuild in the Bay of Biscay is going to take longer than it is on the east coast of Ireland”
11 Go to commentsWhat was the excuse for the other knockout blowouts then? Does the result not prove the Saints were just so much better? Wise call to put your eggs in one basket when you’ve got 2 comps simultaneously finishing.
39 Go to commentsReally hope Kuruvoli and his partner rock the Canes.
1 Go to comments