Mike Schmid admits his mighty Esher side are feeling the heat as they close in on a place in the coveted Championship next season.

The National One leaders claimed an 11th straight victory in a hard-fought 20-15 battle at London rivals Blackheath last weekend.

It leaves them five points clear at the top with a game in hand over London Scottish with just 10 games remaining.

But Director of Rugby Schmid admits the pressure of leading the title race from the opening day is showing and is pleased to have a blank weekend following the postponement of Saturday’s game against Stourbridge.

He said: “I think the boys have looked a bit tired and jaded the last couple of games, both mentally and physically.

“It’s a long season and there is the constant pressure of having to win every weekend if we are going to win the title.

“We weren’t at our best at Blackheath but it says a lot for the character of the boys that they keep on winning under those circumstances.

“”We know we are not going to be brilliant every week but the guys stuck at it and I was certainly impressed by their collective will to win.

“We came off second best in the first half and we lost out in the set piece at both scrum and lineout and that’s the first time that has happened all season.”

Esher’s home game against Stourbridge on Saturday has been postponed as five players were called up by England Counties to face AIB Ireland at Stourbridge on Friday.

Seb Jewell, Sam Ulph and Tom Warren are in the 22-man squad but lock James Inglis and Sam Stitcher have been forced to withdraw.

Inglis is still troubled by a toe injury sustained at London Scottish last month while Stitcher has not recovered from a groin problem.

Schmid said: “It’ll be good to have a weekend off and the rest has probably come at the right time. We are a bit beat up and it’ll be good to re-charge the batteries and get over one or two niggling injuries.”

Esher have 10 games remaining and could possibly afford to lose two and still claim a place amongst the elite 24 clubs in the country.

But Schmid insists they are determined to win every game and is taking nothing for granted. He added: “The target is to go unbeaten until the rest of the season.

“We’ll just take one game at a time and keep ticking them off. If we keep winning, we can’t be caught.

“We don’t want to leave anything to chance. Our next two games are at Cambridge and then at home to Launceston and we know they’ll both be hungry to beat us.

“We have 10 big games left and if we can stay focused and keep knocking them down, then we’ll get there.

“But our intention is to try and win the title by the eighth game and not leave anything to chance. You never know when you might be hit by injuries or something so we’ve just got to keep pushing.”