Esher 71 Blaydon 24

Another terrible day at the office for Blaydon, particularly their defence which has now leaked 177 points in the last 3 games.

Esher, who started the game just 4 places above Blaydon in the table, simply ran the show from start to finish scoring 11 tries in the process and were superior in all departments. Blaydon on the other hand were far less mobile, failed to control most of their own line-out ball and were only in the game for a short spell at the start of the second half.
Esher set off at a cracking pace and by the 6th minute had ran in 2 tries through prop forward Tom Furey and a try bonus point was in the bag by the 18th minute, further scores coming from Gabriel Ibotoye and Spencer Sutherland.
When Blaydon finally got to exert some forward pressure they moved it out to centre Tom Small who shot over in the corner and by the interval hooker Jack Beckwith had crossed from a catch and drive with Brett Connon adding the conversion. Meanwhile however Tom Yellowlees and Brown with his second and third had taken it to 45-12, leaving Blaydon a monumental task to salvage anything in the second period.
For a while things did improve and 2 further tries meant they at least had the consolation of their own try bonus. Several phases of good possession saw Connon put out a long pass for winger Dan Marshall to cross in the corner and then add the extras before getting on the score-sheet himself when he raced over in the corner.
That was as good as it got however on what was a black day for Blaydon, with the home side running in further tries through Tom Gentles, Tom James and Callum Monks, and fly-half Stephen Boatman on target with 8 conversions.

John Brennan