Holmes joins Ealing with more stars set to follow
EALING Trailfinders are making some serious moves in the transfer market despite withdrawing their appeal against the decision to block their promotion to the Premiership.
Ealing won this year’s Championship despite losing home and away to rivals Doncaster in a race for the title that went right down to the wire.
Ben Ward’s side were prevented from taking their rightful place in the Premiership due to the questionable Minimum Standards Criteria (MSC).
Ealing hope that next season the MSC will be aligned to football’s Premier League, where the requirement is for clubs to have a 5,000-capacity stadium rather than 10,001.
And in the meantime, Ward is busy assembling a quality squad designed to make defending their Championship title almost a foregone conclusion next season.
Wales international discard Jonah Holmes, formerly of Leicester Tigers, will leave the Dragons at the end of the season to head to Vallis Way on a deal believed to be in the region of £100,000.
The 29-year-old won the last of his seven caps in the summer of 2021, and after surprisingly being left out of the November Internationals and this year’s Six Nations, the winger/fullback is seemingly leaving Welsh rugby for good.
Ward has targeted the back three as an area where he needs to strengthen. Mike Brown has been approached about moving back down south with his time at Newcastle is about to come to an end.
The Falcons have decided not to activate the extra year on his contract leaving former Harlequins ace Brown, 36, looking elsewhere.
England’s most-capped full-back is planning on stepping up his career in player management but still wants to carry on playing at a high level and a return to London might suit him.
Simon Hammersley is another vastly experienced player who Ealing are believed to have on their radar. The longhaired full-back was sensational in a five-year spell for Newcastle but has so far yet to recapture those heights at his current club Sale Sharks.
Hammersley joined the Sharks in 2019 after exercising a relegation release clause in his contract but his three-year deal is coming to an end.
In addition to Holmes’ signing, Ealing have completed the capture of former England U20 back row Rob Farrar. Farrar, a product of the Falcons academy, made his Premiership debut in the 2020/21 season and has made a couple of top-flight appearances to date.