Esher 23 London Scottish 17

This was not the prettiest of games but one that showed both sides should be in the higher echelons of National League One, writes Geoff Nordemann of the Rugby Paper.

The game was played at such a frenetic pace as to force many mistakes by both sides, but much excitement to the large crowd.

The try count could easily have been double but for dropped passes and ferocious tackling.

Esher had the edge in both line out and the scrum, both packs were fast about the park well supported by their backs.

Esher’s Sam Ulph missed an early chance to put them ahead in the fourth minute and it was not until the 25th minute that he put them ahead with a straight forward 25m penalty.

The next score came 10 minutes on after a Seb Jewell penalty put Esher to close range they won good line out ball set up a rolling maul which was unfairly collapsed. However, they recovered to win good ruck ball and Garrick Cowley touched down and end the half 8-0.

Esher started the second half with a little more composure but this lasted just three minutes, when Jonathan Hylton dropped the ball on the Scots 10, where it was plucked up by David Howells, who pinned back his ears and sprinted 60m to score under the posts for Frankie Neale to convert.

Esher eased further ahead when good scrummage ball was worked across field for Ulph to break down the left and kick forwards, where Hylton chased it down to make amends. Again, Scottish replied as they worked the ball wide for Gary Trueman to glide past the defence and score in the left corner, Neale hitting a fine conversion to go a point up.

Neale then kicked a penalty for a 13-17 lead but Ulph replied to cut the deficit back to one.

With just four minutes remaining, David Slemen slipped a pass to Jewell, who wriggled through three players and kicked ahead for Hylton to collect.

He returned it to a charging Jewell to score under the posts, and Ulph converted to make it 23-17.

Although Scottish threw all they had at Esher in the dying moments, they could not get threw.

Scots boss Brett Taylor said: "We lost a game we could have won but, if you read the papers, they were in for five points so, hopefully, that silences our critics."

His Esher counterpart Mike Schmid said: "Slightly disappointed our first two games didn’t help us much but we came through today, the guys kept their belief in the fact that they could win."

ESHER: Ulph - Loizides - Taylor - Jewell - Hylton - Slemen - Cowley (Gibbs) – Tunnicliff (Millard) - Campbell (Corrigan) - Warren - Barker - Anderson - Blakeburn (Gaynor) - Stitcher - Renwick Sub Not used - Copsey

Scorers: Tries - Cowley - Hylton - Jewell; Cons - Ulph; Pens - Ulph 2