Green and Whites hit the road to take on leaders
NOTTINGHAM travel to London to face Ealing Trailfinders today (2.30pm), taking on the Championship leaders on their home turf.
Craig Hammond’s men will be confident of getting a positive result from their trip, having won three of their last four games. They were unlucky to not come away with a win last Friday when they narrowly lost 20-14 to second-placed Doncaster Knights at The Bay.
Ealing have won 10 of their 11 Championship games with a try bonus point so far this season. Their only loss came away to bottom of the table London Scottish in December, courtesy of a dramatic last-minute winner from Matas Jurevicus.
Despite already being 12 points clear at the head of the table, Ealing’s future still remains up in the air, with the RFU deliberating over what the Premiership and Championship will look like next season. Ideas of a ‘Premiership 2’ still remain strong.
Nevertheless, the ambitious club is still firing on all cylinders and made a good account of themselves against some of the best Premiership clubs in the Premiership Cup. They were unlucky to lose to Leicester Tigers in the semi-final of the competition two weeks ago.
Ealing are a very physical team and a lot of their tries come from their forwards. Hooker Matt Cornish is their highest try scorer this season.
That’s not to take anything away from the backs Ben Ward has at his disposal, though. The Trailfinders have a number of ex-internationals in their ranks including centre Billy Twelvetrees, who played 22 times for England, and winger Jonah Holmes, who earned seven caps for Wales.
Nottingham will hope to counter those threats with some top players of their own.
In particular, David Williams will be hoping for a repeat of the last time he played against the Trailfinders. The speedy winger clocked up four tries when Ealing came to The Bay in November, as Nottingham became the first team to score any points against them this season.
Those four tries are a big reason why Williams sits fourth in the Championship try-scoring charts.
At fly-half, Matt Arden starts once again for the Green and Whites. The 20-year-old was brought in near the start of the year to fill in for the injured Morgan Bunting and Sam Hollingsworth. He has impressed so far in the Nottingham shirt.