Having favoured a “roots-to-tip” approach, the club are now ready to reap the rewards of their “pod system” – a series of partnerships they have struck with the likes of Brunel University, Henley College and Cardinal Newman College, to name a few, which will form the basis for Ealing Trailfinders Women’s Academy.
“I definitely want to give opportunities to young athletes,” Mather says. “I feel that in the Premier 15s at the moment, a lot of the youth gets blocked by internationals and as a result, we have England Under-20 players,
21 and 22-year-olds sitting on benches, or not even necessarily making a match-day 23, but the potential is there. With a little bit of nurturing, love and opportunity, I think those players will go quicker.”
It is an unsurprising admission from the woman who has a proven track record in developing young talent. Mather oversaw the development of England stars Sadia Kabeya, Maud Muir and Abby Dow during her time at Wasps and mentored a number of men’s players, including Anthony Watson and Jonathan Joseph, while heading up London Irish’s development programme.
She does, however, have ambitions to attract a handful of internationals to the west London club – Trailfinders even sent her on a scouting mission to last year’s World Cup in New Zealand – to keep up with the ever-increasing standard of the Premier 15s. In a tell-tale sign of how the league will aim to fully professionalise within the next decade, next season’s salary cap will jump from £120,000 to £190,000.
“If there are 10 teams in the league and 32 Red Roses, that’s three each, for a competitive landscape,” Mather suggests. “That’s what I believe should be in each of the sides and then our Red Roses are challenged week in, week out. I also want to bring in some players from around the world because they add flavour. But do I want to fill it with players from around the world? No.”
Players will be encouraged to have dual careers. There will be opportunities to study at Brunel or pursue work opportunities with businesses connected to Ealing.
It is partly why there will be a dedicated area at Trailfinders’ ground, where players can study or work remotely.
“Back in the day, everyone had careers,” says Mather, who was a PE teacher before coaching became a full-time job. “It was a really rich, diverse environment and with women’s rugby you still get that, you have a dentist who’s doing this, a doctor who’s doing that, police officers, firefighters, nurses and teachers. When you all rock up in the same place you can park the c— that’s going on in that side of your life.”
The Ealing men’s team average about 1,000 spectators for every home game, but Mather is targeting double that for her side’s big Premier 15s debut in September.
The opportunity to continue traditions is another aspect that she is excited about. She says: “Ben Ward [the Ealing Trailfinders director of rugby] rang me the other day saying, ‘I’ve got an idea – the legacy numbers – we have to do the same for the women, too, 1-45 straight off’.
“I’m Red Rose 35 and I’m really proud of that. That’s what’s exciting – this is a beautiful blank canvas.”
