LONG READ ‘Too good for Champ, locked out of Prem, Ealing stuck between rock and hard place’

Ealing Trailfinders completed a perfect league season last weekend. Their record of 26 wins out of 26 saw them finish 30 points clear at the top of the Champ.

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It was their fourth title in England’s second tier in five years. If results were the only factor at play, they would be preparing to play off against Newcastle for a place in the Prem next season as the favourites.

But they aren’t – and as the drawbridge is pulled up in the summer and a new franchise system comes into play – the promised land looks ever further away for them. The doorway into the elite for Ealing is padlocked.

They are denied entry to the Prem because their facilities at homely Vallis Way do not meet the league’s required standards. There is no prospect of them doing so any time soon because, although the restrictions were relaxed to allow clubs four years to reach them, Ealing do not have planning permission to increase their current 5,388 ceiling to the necessary 10,001 capacity.

So, too good for the Champ but unable to get into the Prem, they have been reportedly in talks with the URC over the prospect of filling the vacancy created in that league should one of the Welsh regions bite the dust.

Putting boots on the ground in England would represent an interesting land grab from the URC, and it would be unwise to rule anything out given the arrival of the South African sides into the league, but it does not feel quite right. For the URC or Ealing.

Do the Trailfinders really see themselves as instinctive bedfellows of Munster, Zebre and Edinburgh? To be fair there are already some unusual co-habitees in a league which does not feel any requirement to be constrained by seas or continents.

Still, as they would be the sole English team in there, it feels like an act of desperation – or at least intense frustration – on Ealing’s behalf.

Ealing are a proper rugby club – just one with high-end aspirations. The fact that those cannot be fulfilled in England puts them in a difficult corner.

It is hard not to feel sympathy for their situation. Okay, they are where they are because of the generosity of their benefactor Mike Gooley, the former SAS man-turned-travel-company-magnate who has bankrolled the club for many years.

But the same can be said of Saracens and the Wray family or Sale and the Oranges.

Ealing have been a force for good in their local community and for rugby as a whole. Their support for the professional women’s game sees the Trailfinders pushing for a PWR play-off spot this year.

Their innovative academy scheme at Brunel University provides up-and-coming players with an education as well as improving them as rugby players.

The amateur wing of the club, Ealing Trailfinders 1871, offers recreational rugby for three men’s teams and a women’s team. They have a thriving mini and junior section too.

Ealing are a proper rugby club – just one with high-end aspirations. The fact that those cannot be fulfilled in England puts them in a difficult corner.

The stated aim, from the Prem’s chief executive Simon Massie-Taylor, is that the league wants to expand, when it moves to a franchise system in the summer. The current 10 clubs will hopefully rise to 12 in 2029-30.

But whenever the most desirable expansion areas are mentioned, it is the likes of Yorkshire, the West Midlands and Kent which are always circled, not a club that sits only five miles away from Harlequins.

Cornwall could be added to that list with the American investment that is coming into the Cornish Pirates.

Birmingham City’s US owners are amongst those to have expressed a passing interest in a rugby union add-on, mirroring the bid by Bournemouth’s owner Tom Foley to buy Exeter Chiefs.

If some of the more ambitious ideas come to pass, the map of the sport could be re-drawn. But the Trailfinders – however unfair it seems in sporting terms – are likely to remain on the outside looking in.

This is an interesting phase for the English game and where it will end up is hard to predict.

If Bournemouth and maybe Birmingham’s American owners are on board, why not Brighton or Norwich City too?

That would certainly be the hope of the Prem, you would imagine, as it seeks new investment in its new era.

If some of the more ambitious ideas come to pass, the map of the sport could be re-drawn. But the Trailfinders – however unfair it seems in sporting terms – are likely to remain on the outside looking in.

Ealing are hamstrung not only by their stadium and modest spectator base, but their geography. Bringing on board another London club is never going to be the Prem’s priority.

In the early days of professionalism, it was deemed by the English club owners that there were too many clubs from south-west London in, what was then, a 14-club Premiership. The professional arms of Richmond and London Scottish were forced into a merger with London Irish.

When London Welsh were promoted to the Premiership, they played in Oxford.  Not that it worked out too well for them, but spreading professional rugby around the country has to make sense. And that is bad news for Ealing.

Is it enough then for them to keep winning the Champ? Not really. They have been there and done that. What about winning the Champ with a 100 per cent record? Been there, done that too.

You begin to see why a shot at the URC starts to seem appealing.

Rugby-wise, if a vacancy is created in that competition, and the Welsh regions are fighting with all they have to stop that, Ealing would face competition for it from the Cheetahs.

If there was to be an English presence in the URC down the line, a team in the capital would make sense commercially. But even then, a more obvious fit would be a London Scottish or a rebooted London Irish.

Axed from what was then the Pro14 in 2020, the South African side would have a reasonable argument to come back in.

A more imaginative option for the league would be the addition of Black Lion, from Georgia, who have been part of the Challenge Cup in Europe for the past three seasons.  If Cape Town is deemed viable, then why not Tbilisi?

If there was to be an English presence in the URC down the line, a team in the capital would make sense commercially. But even then, a more obvious fit would be a London Scottish or a rebooted London Irish.

Perhaps in a time of flux for rugby we should not write off the possibility of Ealing’s inclusion entirely, but it seems like a long shot.

At the climax of their magnificent 2025-26 season, it feels like the Trailfinders are stuck between the proverbial rock and hard place.