Staines remain in the driving seat at the top of London One North, with four games to play, after Saturday’s 44-16 win at Rochford.

Missing the injured Richard Mahony, Staines welcome back lock forward Junior Harrison for the rest of the season from Esher.

And they started positively opening the scoring in the first 10 minutes when number eight Carr found a gap and fed centre Heke, who put wing Smith over for a try. Wells missed the conversion.

Three minutes later, a driving maul put prop Gibson over the Rochford line and Wells converted. Wells then kicked a penalty to make it 15-0.

Against the run of play, Rochford kicked a penalty, but they were soon down to 14 men after the Rochford hooker collected a yellow card.

Staines were quick to capitalise, number eight Carr picking up from the base of a scrum to score.

Then Staines stretched the depleted Rochford defence by moving the ball out wide. Full-back Cornish latched onto a loose ball close to the sideline before cutting inside and beating three defending players to score. Wells’ conversion made it 27-3.

Staines then picked up two sin-bins in quick succession when Harrison and Giles were penalised, but the 13 men defended resolutely, limiting the hosts to only three points. Staines finished the first half 27-6 in front.

Rochford started the second half brightly, but Staines scored first when hooker Shanahan, their man-of-the-match, scored a try after a clean catch-and-drive from a line-out.

Rochford clawed another three points back with a penalty, only for fly-half Regan to make a clean break and score under the posts, stretching Staines’ lead to 39-9.

More Staines pressure saw Shanahan take a quick short ball and Harrison ran in unopposed. Rochford managed a converted try from the final move of the match.

Staines host Brentwood this Saturday knowing one slip up in their remaining four games could let in close rivals Civil Service.