Esher 23 London Welsh 39

It was a far from convincing win at Esher and the one league difference between to two sides rarely showed. Just like like the weather, there were occasional moments of brightness but otherwise little for London Welsh supporters to get excited about as Esher caused the Welsh pack problems in the scrum and often made the defensive line look very fragile.

London Welsh applied pressure from the kick-off and a run down the touchline and chip ahead from Dominic Shabbo almost led to the first try but Esher eventually managed to gather the ball and make the clearance. Within moments Welsh had another opportunity when new signing Gordon Ross found himself in space but decided to pass when it appeared that he could have finished the move on his own. The Welsh attack didn’t let up and Aled Thomas moved into the line from full back and when a gap opened in the Esher defence he had an easy run-in to score. Ross missed the conversion.

Welsh were now running the ball at every chance and from a tap penalty they quickly took play from one 22 metre line to the other. An Esher infringement saw another penalty awarded but Ross’ kick at goal went wide. On twenty minutes former London Welsh player Sam Ulph also missed a penalty and a wild pass brought an Esher move to an end.

Ben Gotting added his name to the scoresheet when a long penalty kick to touch gave Welsh a lineout deep in Esher’s half. From a clean catch the pack rolled forward and the hooker touched the ball down. Goal kicking duties were passed to Aled Thomas and he duly converted to take London Welsh 12 points clear. Within five minutes Esher countered with a try and conversion and quickly levelled scores when consecutive Welsh scrums struggled and allowed the home team in for another try.

Just before half time Esher’s scrum half was given a yellow card for persistent infringements at the scrum. Welsh were awarded a penalty and took a scrum instead a kick but dropped the ball on the line. At half time the scores remained level at 12 each.

An Aled Thomas penalty took the score to 12-15 early in the second half and from the restart Mike Powell gathered the ball and broke clear. A pass to the left wing and eventually to Neil Starling allowed the centre to score near the corner flag. Despite the difficulty of the conversion Aled Thomas added the two points and the score moved on to 12-22.

Michael Hills was then shown the yellow card and Ulph took three points from the resulting penalty. Esher then found gaps in the Welsh defence and on 55 minutes the ball was moved from the lineout to the fly-half who, with an outrageous dummy, ran straight through the Welsh backline for an easy score. With the conversion missed Esher were back within two points. By this stage Paul Mackey, Greg Evans, Dorian Williams, Nick Runciman, Tom Brown, Ben Thomas Dan George and Paul Sampson had all come onto the field as replacements.

The extra points from an Aled Thomas penalty was cancelled out by Ulph when Paul Sampson was sin-binned for a late tackle on Seb Jewell. Nick Runciman then made the most of a free kick with a quick tap and go giving him the angle to run in for penultimate try and extended the Welsh lead to 32–23. The final try fell to Paul Mackey when the ball was spun out to Greg Evans who then moved it on to his fellow centre. Aled Thomas converted and the game finished with the scoreline of 23-39.

Next week the league season opens with a visit to Bristol and London Welsh will have to make improvements in the scrum, lineout and defence if they hope to compete with the newly relegated side. Unless, of course, they were just trying to lull the Bristol ‘spies’ into a false sense of security…….