Mike Schmid has told his Esher title chasers to finish the campaign on a high and prove they are worth a place in his Championship side next season.

Esher are within touching distance of National One glory and a coveted place among the top 24 teams in England after nearest rivals London Scottish crashed to a second successive defeat at Launceston.

It leaves Esher four points clear of the Exiles with three games in hand and five wins from eight will almost certainly secure promotion.

But Director of Rugby Schmid has again warned against complacency ahead of Saturday’s home showdown against Otley at Molesey Road.

And he also says his players are fighting for their futures with the whole squad out of contract this summer. He said: “There is still a lot to play for this season. We haven’t won the title yet and we must plough on and make sure we stay focused.

“We must keep ticking the games off by playing the same type of rugby we have played all season. By doing that, the results have come. We don’t want to drag it out.

“But the guys are also playing for contracts next season so they have something to prove as well.

“We’ve just started speaking to one or two of them and we will be speaking to everyone over the next few weeks in preparation for next season.

“We are just feeling things out with the players. Obviously some are interesting other National One and Championships sides so we will have to wait and see.

“But we have a lot of players who stayed with us after we were relegated. They have done brilliantly for us this season and we really want to keep those core players.”

Esher dropped into the revamped National One in controversial circumstances last season when the RFU changed the rules midway through the campaign, which meant five clubs were relegated instead of two.

But Esher have reacted in the best way possible with a magnificent campaign that has seen them win 21 of 22 games to stand on the threshold of the 12-team Championship.

However, relegation last summer meant Esher could only award 12-month contracts to the players with the RFU budget slashed to £60,000 for the season.

Schmid said: “All the players’ contracts are up because we could only plan a year ahead as we didn’t know where we would be.

“We will have a bigger budget for contracts if we are promoted. But some of our players have big ambitions so we will have to see what happens. “ Schmid has also has talks with Harlequins and Wasps over the past week and again expects to have several players with dual registration next season.

Esher hope to have several young Quins players available for Saturday’s match with Otley with back rower Chris York plus England Under-20 duo Joe Marler and Sam Smith likely to feature.

But kicking machine Sam Ulph, who has booted 317 points and scored 13 tries, is rated at 50-50 after sustaining a shoulder injury.

It has also been confirmed that lock James Inglis is out for the season after foot surgery while Neil Hallett is also unlikely to feature in the final eight games after an appendix operation.