Harry Dugmore, Elliot Chilvers and Harrison Obatoyinbo have all been rewarded for their impressive performances last year, and will now make the jump up to the fully professional environment.
The Academy proved to be a huge success in it’s inaugural year as Team Brunel stormed their way to the title, with these three players all making their mark with the coaches.
Dugmore, a back-rower who was previously at Whitgift School scored eight tries in nine appearances, but also made a mighty 79 tackles during that time. He came off the bench for the Trailfinders in the pre-season victory over Bishop’s Stortford, and will now be looking for more action in 20/21.
Chilvers, who won the Coaches Player of the Season in the Academy played 14 matches in the front-row, with his scrummaging ability taking centre stage. He joined from Samuel Whitbread Academy, and after a year of significant progression he will now be learning off the likes of Will Davis and James Gibbons in his position.
Obatoyinbo, who is formerly of Harrow School is an electric finisher who can play across the back three. He scored nine tries in 11 matches, and beat 74 defenders en route to the try-line throughout the year. With searing pace, he has already impressed when invited to join the first team last season.
In a majorly significant positive for the Trailfinders Rugby Academy, Director of Rugby Ben Ward is delighted to welcome these Scholars in to the first team.
“Firstly, this is a really exciting piece of news to come from our Academy, and once again shows our vision for it to become the biggest programme in the country.
All three players are here on merit and we see them very much in our plans for the future. Harry is a hard-hitting back-rower who can learn a huge amount from the likes of Rayn Smid and Kieran Murphy in his position.
Elliot has worked incredibly hard this year to develop his set piece and game around the pitch. Steve Neville and the other coaches have done a great job working closely with him this season.
Harrison has that bit of X Factor about him, and with Peter Lydon leaving late on, we feel it is a great opportunity for him to step up to the first team and compete for a spot in the back three.
We will look at all three players and see what their needs are around balancing the need to improve individually in training, but also make sure that they get lots of game time, which our programme allows us to do.
Hopefully this can be used as motivation for all of our Academy players, and we hope many more players make the step in the coming years.”
This article was first published by the Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club.