One of the good things about National League One is that we play clubs who combine both the traditional aspects of club rugby, veterans teams, junior and youth sections and so on, with a first team playing in the highest levels of the English game. Esher are one of these clubs.
They were promoted as National League Two champions last season and already have caused a few scares in NL1 this campaign.
Bedford only beat them by two points at Goldington Road and they came from a long way down to get two bonus points away at Rotherham two weeks ago. They also made the Pirates scrap for every point last week at home and narrowly missed out on another losing bonus point.
Esher’s coach Mike Schmid has made some astute and experience signings in the shape of Rob Henderson, who played for the British Lions, Italy centre Matteo Barbini and Dougie Flockhart, who has plenty of experience with the Border Reivers.
The club also have a thriving youth and junior section and are the leading club in Surrey.
We can expect a tough game today and it is one of those afternoons that, if we aren’t paying enough respect to our opposition, could become a banana skin for us. As ever, we cannot afford to let this happen.
Last week Doncaster pushed us right until the end. For the first 20 minutes we barely got out of our half and their try that gave them the lead was well deserved.
I was pleased with the way our players kept their heads and didn’t panic at this stage, which allowed us to take control of the game as it wore on and was one of the foundations of the eventual victory. Needless to say I was happy with the bonus point, and that we stopped one of our biggest rivals getting anything out of the game.
Although today’s match is another big game for us, needless to say your attention will be focussed on Paris later this evening.
A month ago England were given no chances of progressing in the World Cup. Apparently after the South Africa group game one bookmaker had their odds at 279-1 to win the tournament!
Having worked in the England set-up until only recently I can safely say that this would have made the players and coaches all the more determined to prove everybody wrong. This they have done and now they are 80 minutes away from making history.
Even if they don’t, England have done extremely well to get to the final and they deserve our congratulations.
Enjoy both games.
