Esher 16 Plymouth Albion 25

Esher gave their supporters a fun ride in their opening game in National One. Plymouth where always going to be tough opposition as there full time squad made the visit to the Pillar Data Arena.

Esher had the chance to score their first points after five minutes when Plymouth infringed at a ruck. The penalty kick by Neil Hallett from just inside the visitors half just fell short.

Esher maintained their momentum and put Plymouth under pressure, but it was then the visitors who took first blood through a penalty by their fly-half Ross Laidlaw on 12 minutes. He extended their lead to 6-0 after a further three minutes with another penalty.

The game was a little cat and mouse with both teams attacking and having to defend well. On 20 minutes, a 22 dropout by Esher fly-half Dave Hewitt was charged down, the error allowed Plymouth to score the first try of the game as Adam Kettle retrieved the ball to go over and score. Laidlaw missed the conversion.

Both teams looked slightly nervous, but Esher began to take some control and on 30 minutes, Hallett clawed three points back with penalty.

Three minutes later, Hewitt out wide on the right put a kick chase through the Plymouth defence and Matt Moore outpaced the defence to score in the left hand corner, Hallett just failed with the conversion.

Esher were now back in the game and with the clock ticking down, Hallett added a further three points from a penalty kick to make it 11-3 at half-time.

Esher were now back in the game and did not look outclassed, in fact, they looked the sharper team out in the back division.

The second half saw a similar pattern, Esher at times looking the much brighter team, but just failing to finish off in good attacking situations.

With 18 minutes remaining, Hallett had the chance to put Esher ahead, but his kick went just to the right of the posts.

Esher were still in the hunt with 10 mintes to play, but another mistake when Graham Barr kicked out on the full allowed Plymouth an attacking opportunity.

They were clinical in their approach and scored their second try through wing Nic Sestaret, Laidlaw added the conversion and Plymouth led 20-11.

Moments later another error allowed the Plymouth full back Emyr Lewis in to score.

But Esher did not stop playing and threatened the Plymouth line on several occasions.

On 77 minutes from a lineout, the Esher pack managed to get a rolling maul going forward and the sheer determination of those players forced the larger and more physical Plymouth pack backwards, when on the try line, replacement hooker Simon Goldsmith touched down.

With the score 25-16, Hallett had the chance to narrow the gap to seven and at least take a much-deserved bonus point.

The crowd went silent as Hallett approached the ball, but alas, the kick just failed. At the full-time whistle, the Esher crowd gave the home side a standing ovation as they knew the boys deserved something from the superb effort against a side that will be challenging for top four honours during the season.

Esher: Cormack - Campbell - Smith - Barker - Inglis - Blakeburn - Starling - Barrell - Barr - Hewitt - Flockhart - Henderson - Armitage - Moore -Hallett.

Replacements: Warren (3) 47 - Harris (4) 57 - Butterworth (5) 78 - Millard (1) 78 - Goldsmith (2) 68 - Clouston (12) 72 - Lane (9) 72.

Esher scorers: Tries - Moore - Goldsmith Penalties: Hallett 2