Staines RFC maintained their push for promotion back to London One with a 22-5 victory at Eton Manor on Saturday, writes Tony Brightwell.

Eton Manor proved a very difficult side to break down. They soaked up early Staines pressure and then attacked themselves, threatening the Staines line.

However, on 20 minutes the away side engineered a breakout from a defensive position through their openside flanker Luciano Silvera, who snaffled a loose ball and instigated a move upfield.

The ball was taken on by number eight Eddie Jones, who made a classic break into the Eton Manor 22 before offloading to Silvera, who scored under the posts, fullback James Cornish added the extra points.

Eton Manor quickly proved they were up for the contest and quickly replied with a try of their own, when the Staines defence was undone by a clever piece of play by the home side backs.

Their centre slid a low kick through the advancing Staines line for their winger to score an unconverted try, which was to prove Eton's only score of the game.

Staines then took the game to the home side and, while not finding top gear, they increased the pressure on the Eton Manor defence.

Through a prolonged series of grinding forward attacks, the Eton Manor resolve was bound to crack and, when a prop was sinbinned for illegally slowing down possession at a ruck, Staines converted the resultant penalty to edge 10-5 in front.

Just before half-time, Staines gave themselves some breathing space, when hooker Stefaan Myburgh broke from the side of a driving maul and burst up the touchline, cleverly slipping the ball inside to the scrum-half Richard Scott to score.

The first half had been a real test, but Staines team had withstood the physicality of the Eton Manor game and ground out a useful lead on the break.

Their forwards were impressive, with flanker Luciano Silvera having a useful game and lock Tom Cleary getting through a lot of work in the lineout and loose.

In the second half, the Eton Manor blanket defence continued to frustrate the Staines backs, who had a fruitless afternoon.

It took a moment of sublime rugby to unpick the home side defence. Scott, on a lateral run, chose his moment to perfection to pop an inside pass to lock Junior Harrison, who taking the ball at speed, shot through the smallest gap in the Eton Manor defence and, even from 30m out, there was no stopping his charge for the line. The try was again converted by Cornish.

With the score now 22-5 for the visitors, the game was now effectively over, and the final 20 minutes was played out with neither side able to break through two very well-organised, hard-tackling defences.

Although the Staines backs had been unusually subdued in attack, the win was nevertheless satisfying and other aspects of their play shone, including the positional kicking of fly-half Andy Regan.

Together with the assured defence and counter-attacking skills of fullback Cornish, this was a positive, professional performance from a Staines side which would not look out of place in the league above.

Getting back there is the objective - a win at home to league leaders Chingford on Saturday (2.30pm) would take them a long way towards achieving that goal.

The following Saturday, they welcome Birkenhead Park to the Reeves in the Intermediate Cup.