Ealing Football Club (RU) played its first match in 1869 on Ealing Common, prior to the founding of the Rugby Football Union in 1871. The early years saw regular fixtures against the likes of Wasps, London Irish, Harlequins, Richmond and Blackheath with 75% win rate for a long period. The Club's registered playing name with the RFU is Ealing Trailfinders and is a Mutual Society Registered with the FSA run on behalf of its members and the game. Ealing Trailfinders currently play in National League 1, the third tier of the English rugby union league system.
Between 1894 and 1958 the club moved location numerous times – Hanger Lane – West Middlesex Polo Club – Gunnersbury Park – Drayton Green – Syon Lane, Horsenden Hill. Now the club is located at Trailfinders Sports Ground, just south of the A40 at the upper end of West Ealing, which is also home to the GWR Cricket and Rugby Clubs.
Ealing Rugby Club’s centenary match was played against Harlequins in 1970. The 1970s and ’80s saw Ealing playing a superior standard of rugby union with the club supplying many county level players for Middlesex. In 1987 the club finished top of London Division 1 and during the next 6 years was never lower than 2nd in London 1 or higher than 10th in National 5. Ealing won the Middlesex cup 3 times in this period.
Unfortunately the early 1990s saw great reductions in the number of home grown colts and new mature talent joining the club and in 1996 Ealing were relegated from London 1 with further challenging times since. Corrective action was taken, youth and minis sections were formed and the Club moved to a new ground at Trailfinders Sports Club in 1999.
The Club is now thriving at all levels. The minis and youth sections have teams in all age groups and on Sundays the club is a sea of green and white clad junior players with over 750 registered players making it the biggest club in Middlesex and one of the largest in the country. The Clubs Junior teams are regular winners of County Festivals and champions of the Herts and Middlesex Leagues for Youth Rugby.
The Club has been awarded two RFU Presidents Awards, the first in 2007 for its work on Referee Development that has extended into a national programme and the second in 2008 for Coaching Excellence. The Club is also notable for having developed a unique pathway for female players starting at 10 and running through to U18. Known as the Emeralds, this section has already started to provide players to the England Elite Programme. The focus on management and coaching is helping young players develop and the Club has seen players develop through the new structures to play for England and US and in 2009 fielded two first team players who just a few years ago where playing in the Juniors and who have gone on to representative Honours.
In the 2009/10, season the Club was the only team in the National Leagues to score more than 1000 points, averaging more than 36 in each game. The Club very narrowly missed out on promotion to National One by losing to Barking RFC by 2 points and Rosslyn Park by 1.
The Senior Club fields six regular sides with the Exiles, Cougars, Buffaloes, Evergreens and the Women's team the Jades each growing stronger each season. In 2010/11 the Club started its Community Rugby programme providing Coaching Support and Access to the game to Schools and other groups throughout Ealing and West London.
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