Gloucester favourite Henry Trinder joins the Mob

Former Gloucester favourite Henry Trinder has been unveiled as Greene King IPA Championship club Ampthill’s new player-coach.

Working under former Wales fly half Paul Turner, Trinder joins former Saracens and England lock Mouritz Botha who embarks on his third campaign with the Bedfordshire-based second-tier outfit.

Trinder said he is looking forward to his first taste of Championship rugby since being part of a Moseley squad which beat Neil Back’s Leeds Carnegie to lift the EDF Energy Cup at Twickenham in 2009.

“I’m excited to get going with what seems to be a great group of boys,” he said.

“Training so far has been a good standard and hopefully we can keep improving over the coming months.

“Sitting down with (director of rugby) Mark Lavery and Paul it was obvious they are both very passionate about rugby and the future of the club so it’s great to be involved and I’m looking forward to the experience.”

Paul Turner in his Wasps days (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Upwardly mobile Ampthill finished the 2019/20 season in sixth place in the Championship after gaining promotion from National One the previous year.

The ‘Mob’ then slipped to seventh in the 11-team half-season competition which finished in the spring.

The 32-year-old centre left Kingsholm in April for French second division club RC Vannes where he completed the 2020/21 season as a ‘medical joker.’

While appearing for the Brittany-based outfit, who finished as runners-up to Catalan giants Perpignan, Trinder was part of a squad including fellow English backs Nick Abendanon and Andy Symons.

Trinder previously made 172 appearances during which he scored 46 tries in a 13-year stint at Gloucester which began in 2008.

He has also represented England eight times at under-20 while he made three appearances at Saxons level as well as playing for his country in the annual end-of-season clash with the Barbarians in 2014.