Blackheath 15 Esher 20

A one-point defeat at Sedgley Park in October remains the only blemish on Esher’s record as a 19th win of the season kept the Surrey club on their relentless march towards a quick return to domestic rugby's level two.

Few would bet against them doing it, but Mike Schmid will look to better performances during their run in than this.

“We expected a tough game and we got a tough game” explained an unhappy director of rugby afterwards.

“We knew Blackheath have played very well at home and should have beaten London Scottish two weeks ago so we were preparing for that kind of performance.

"They’re a team who are well coached, never give up and deserved to be in the game - full credit to them.”

As to his own team’s performance he added: “We found some character late on but were decidedly second best in the first period.”

Indeed, had Blackheath taken their chances, and not gifted away points, they might have had a significant advantage by the interval.

The hosts started at a furious pace, moving the ball quickly and running hard into the opposition, with James Catt particularly outstanding in a physical opening spell.

On just four minutes, Dave Allen burst through the visitors’ defence, the open-side finding a delightful off-load for Tyson Lewis to outpace the remaining cover and race round beneath the uprights for an easy Paul Humphries conversion.

A charged-down kick on the 22 enabled Esher outside-centre Neil Taylor to level the scores seven minutes later, but Blackheath’s line-out was superior throughout and continued to give them an attacking platform.

However, two Humphries penalty strikes, the second following a determined break from Steve Hamilton in midfield, drifted wide and although the Blackheath fly-half settled his nerves with a well-taken drop-goal after his side had withstood a period of heavy pressure, (cleared by a huge hoof forward from Tom White), Esher’s Sam Ulph quickly cancelled out the lead after the hosts had fallen offside.

Ulph stayed prostrate just long enough to see White trotting to the sin-bin for his late challenge on 37 minutes, the league’s top points scorer quickly nipping to his feet to convert the penalty.

But, for all that, you can’t argue with the intelligent thinking just after the interval that stamped Esher’s authority on the score-line and ultimately gave Blackheath too big a gap to bridge.

Ball from a quick tap-penalty taken by Esher scrum-half Garrick Cowley was moved to Dave Slemen, the skipper and fly-half putting up a booming cross-field kick that landed in a vast open wilderness created by Blackheath’s lack of a full-back.

Left-wing Jonny Hylton collected on the first bounce before racing home under the uprights, giving Esher a 10-point advantage.

Had Esher managed to control another charged-down kick (the visitors skilfully stretched the offside line to its very limits) that bobbled over the goal-line on 50 minutes, the game would have been all but over, but Blackheath continued to enjoy enough possession to trouble their opponents.

In the 52nd minute, Lewis was put though the midfield but the wing's pass found only Esher hands and, although the hosts continued to probe, they couldn’t set up any sustained pressure to really test the visitors’ defence, well marshalled by impressive full-back Neil Hallett.

In terms of territory, the closing moments belonged to Esher, who looked to close out the game by setting up camp on Blackheath's goal-line but there was to be one final twist in this tightly fought contest.

As ball was played out towards the corner, Matt Vaughan, on as fly-half replacement, intercepted and made the halfway line before off-loading to Lewis to score his 12th try of the season, giving Blackheath a deserved bonus point and Esher a few anxious closing moments.

Esher have a week off now as five players have been selected for the England Counties XV to face Ireland club on Friday.

Esher's next league game is on Saturday, March 6, when they travel to Cambridge.

Esher: Hallet – Ulph – Taylor – Jewell – Hylton – Slemen – Cowley – Tunnicliff – Corrigan (Campbell) – Warren (Millard) – Barker – Anderson – Gaynor (Blakeburn) – Starling – Renwick

Subs Not Used – Copsey – Garner

Esher scorers: Tries:- Taylor – Hylton – Cons:- Ulph 2 – Pens:- Ulph 2