Off the back of a stunning win on a Friday night, London Scottish knew they were in for a big battle against Ealing Trailfinders back at the RAG. Taking on the league’s leading side who had only lost two games all season was a big challenge.

Scottish would have to spring a shock to get a result and for much of the game they almost did just that. However, plagued by injuries in the backs and thanks to some of Ealing’s power up front, the Exiles were unable to come up with the win but did secure a last minute bonus point for their efforts.

The opening quarter of the game was a tense affair with both sides unable to find any fluency and a lot of errors. Scrums were the order of the day and that meant that Ealing’s power game could come to the fore, winning a lot of penalties at the set piece.

However, it would be London Scottish who would open the scoring through a lovely crossfield kick to Bryn Bradley from the boot of Josh Bellamy. A glorious score that wowed the Exiles crowd.

However, soon after things started to unravel for Scottish, injuries to Bradley and then Will Talbot-Davies who had only just entered the field broke the continuity. A concussion to Will Brown meant that the Exiles were forced to further juggle to backline to accomodate.

As a result, Ealing were able to take advantage of this chaos and score two tries. Largely from their forward prowess they found the line but Scottish ill discipline would give them the field position.

Despite this though, Scottish managed to regroup and fought back into the game. Pouncing on a mistake Jonah Holmes found Harry Sheppard for his first try of the season from short range. Then once again finding space from a turnover, Sean Kerr would race clear to find Stephen Kerins and retake the lead for his side.

However, either side of half time Ealing would pounce, one try just before the break and three quick scores after the break once again taking advantage of their forward prowess all but killed the game for the Exiles. A further injury to Harry Sheppard forced more changes to the side as the home team looked to get themselves back into the game.

The Exiles were able to take something from the game as Austin Wallis flopped over from short range for the score in the corner in the dying embers. However, there will be a sense of what could have been after a first half that saw the side’s going in level.