Despite the terrible conditions and missing several players it was clear from the off that Scottish were
up for the game against our good friends from Esher. From the kick-off Aleks made a powerful run
through the Esher defence, our prop has found his running shoes recently and his powerful carries
was a theme throughout the match. Off one of these trademark carries and with great recycling
from the pack the backs then got involved and quick hands put our silky #8 Jake in at the corner to
open the scoring, with the try converted by Ed.

The conditions dictated it was a game for the forwards, but that didn’t stop them looking for neat
off-loads to keep the pace of the game up and in quick succession Conor went over for his first try of
the season and Mikolai opened up his account on the day with the first of three tires he would bag.
The weather worked against Ed who narrowly missed the conversions.

From the re-start Mikolai collected the ball and took it up the park, supported as always with his hard
lines Freddie took the ball up and with support from Max and Jake put Mikolai back into space to
barge through the defence and dot down under the sticks, making the conversion for Ed simple. We
then had two more quick tries, almost a repeat but this time with the backs making the ground, led
by Jean, Rudy and Devraj making great ground to put Freddie in and then for his hat-trick Mikolai.
To their credit, Esher kept at it and began to build pressure on the Scots and we found ourselves
camped out defending the line, but a trademark turnover from Ben led to Nico feeding our #15 Josh
who bravely ran it out from under the posts to feed Rudy, Ed and Freddie who popped a delicious
offload to debutant Joe who streaked in from halfway to dot down under the post with Ed
converting. Devan then came off the bench and was soon felling Esher runners with his chop
tackling. With the half-time whistle almost upon us, Ed and Rudy combined with quick hands to
deceive the defence and Ed ran in under the posts and converted his own try.

Under WF Cup rules once a 50 point gap is achieved the game is called; however Esher were keen to
keep braving the weather and wanted to give their players valuable game time so the second half
kicked off as the weather became worse. Understandably, handling errors began to creep in from
both teams as the ball became like a bar of soap. From a scrum, a lovely combination from Jake and
Nico fed the ball back to Aleks, who fittingly had the last word and went over for a try to seal the
game.

Esher as always were a pleasure to play, their friendship and competitive spirit meant these games
are always great to watch, regardless of the outcome and we wish them well for the remainder of
the Waterfall Cup. For the Scots, they go 2 from 2 and now have two away games before finishing
their pool stage back at Kings House on the 2nd March…..if you’re in the area come and cheer the
boys on!