Henley H.............26pts
Esher................... 31pts
ESHER underlined their promotion credentials with a hardfought victory over Henley Hawks at Dry Leas.
The visitors were clinical in attack and disciplined in defence to claim their 12th successive win, despite the Hawks nearly completing a miraculous second-half comeback.
It was a cagey opening period with attacking opportunities few and far between. However, it was the visitors who found a flash of inspiration after ten minutes when an attacking lineout was spun wide to full-back Owen Waters who did well to find space in a corner to dot down.
Sam Morley was on target with his conversion and Esher had an early foothold in the game.
The Henley lineout, which has been such a potent weapon all season long, was struggling to get going and despite having plenty of territory and possession, the home side struggled to make it count.
Indeed, it was Esher who pulled further ahead when the excellent Pierre Thompson crossed out wide following a break from winger James Botterill. Esher scented blood and scored a third on the half-hour mark when the elusive Botterill touched down excellently in the corner.
Henley finally got themselves on the scoreboard close to the interval, when a quick-tap penalty from Ryan Crowley saw the centre cut his way through the visitors’ defence.
However, Esher scored their bonus-point try right on the stroke of the half-time interval when Thompson powered his way over for his second of the after noon.
The second half started just as the first one ended with Esher scoring their fifth try of the contest when hooker Andrew Hamilton crossed the whitewash following a powerful driving maul.
