DANIEL GALLAN talks to Sarries centre Dom Morris ahead of the Championship final
Spare a thought for Ealing Trailfinders Rugby Club.The West London outfit have been outsiders of the English game ever since 1871 when, as the legend goes, a representative of the club failed to attend a meeting at the Pall Mall Restaurant in Haymarket and opted instead to wet his whistle at a pub.
This gaff meant Ealing were not among the 21 founding members of the RFU.
For 150 years the organisation have been tethered to this amusing, but cautionary anecdote. And as Ealing have traversed multiple tiers on the rugby pyramid – as low as the eighth division as recently as 1999 – their players, administrators and supporters have watched 28 other clubs compete in the Premiership.
The men in green and white hoops, and all those who love them, are just two games away from the promised land. A mere 160 minutes of play-off rugby separates this Cinderella community club from regular fixtures against the nation's best in stadiums that dwarf the modest Trailfinders Sports Ground. All that's standing in their way are the most dominant English club of the last decade: Saracens.
The American author and wild man Hunter S Thompson said that the music business is a cruel and shallow world. He might well have been talking about elite sport. Because though there are fairytales and romantic underdog triumphs, upsets are rare.
Almost always the team with the deeper pockets and world class talent win. Ealing have waited a lifetime for this shot at glory – several lifetimes in fact – and it's just plain rotten luck that fate has served them a near impossible task. Not everyone, however, is shedding a tear.
“Do I feel sympathy for them? No, I wouldn't say that,” says Dominic Morris, the 23- year-old Saracens centre who, understandably, has not been swept up by Ealing's plucky narrative.
“I fully respect them. I fully respect everything that Ealing stand for and what they're about. They're a quality team and they're filled with quality players. They're a club on the rise and they're doing great things. They've beaten every other team in the Championship quite convincingly and so deserve to get a shot at promotion. But no, I'm not thinking about these play-offs in those terms. I don't think anyone at Sarries has any sympathy for them.”
If a robust media industry existed in the 11th century BC, and a travelling Press corps was around to bear witness to the historic clash between the Israelites and the Philistines,it is doubtful too many would have focussed on Goliath as he prepared for battle with young David.
“It's a strange one,” Morris says of his side's status as the menacing giant in this piece. “Having played in the Championship with Bedford (on loan in 2019) I know how hard it is for a lower league club to compete with the top teams. And that's especially true when you're up against Saracens, one of the best teams in Europe over the last few years.
“But we're conscious not to think of ourselves as Goliath, or anything like that. We're very good at keeping the outside world on the outside. We just focus on ourselves, on the club, on the relationships we've built here and our supporters who will be desperate to see us back in the Premiership. That's all we care about.That's the only thing on our minds.”
“They've beaten every other team in the Championship convincingly”
But even the smallest warrior can fell a more powerful advisory with one well-placed stone. Saracens' director of rugby Mark McCall won't need reminding that Ealing beat the three-time European champions twice in the preseason Trailfinders Cup.
Granted, the team that competed in that competition was vastly different from the one that we'll likely see on Sunday. And when the heavy hitters like Owen Farrell, Maro Itoje, Jamie George, Elliot Daly and the Vunipola brothers took the field for the Championship match between the two sides in April, Saracens cantered to a comfortable 48-20 win.
Despite that lopsided result, Morris stresses that Saracens will not make the mistake of underestimating their less glamorous opponents. At least, they won't be making that mistake again.
“We were all incredibly shocked when we lost to Cornish Pirates on the opening day of the season,” Morris says of the 25-17 reverse in Cornwall back in March. “It was a blessing in disguise really. It was a massive wakeup call. It made us treat every game, every team with more respect. It made us realise that we couldn't just turn up and expect to beat teams in the Championship by 50 points.We had to properly prepare because this league is no walk in the park.”
Last month McCall said that Ealing could comfortably be a ‘mid-table Premiership side'.Morris agrees and, despite the circumstances of the play-offs, would be happy to see the Trailfinders competing in the top division.
“They've shown that they can play at this level. They've beaten us, they've beaten Newcastle and Harlequins in recent years. It would be a shame if there is ring-fencing and they're left out, even though I know ring-fencing would help a lot of clubs financially. I'd like to see the second last team in the Prem and the second best team in the Championship maybe have to play off in the future. Maybe that's the way to go about it.”
Morris is quick to steer our conversation back to more immediate matters. That's the Saracens way. This is a club where silverware is the only accepted currency and a seat at the head of the main table is the only appropriate place to hold court. Romance be damned. As far as the black and red juggernaut is concerned, Ealing's century and a half wait for top flight rugby is simply irrelevant.
