League leaders Esher came back from going 12-0 down inside the opening quarter-of-an-hour at Footes Lane to beat Guernsey 57-12, scoring eight tries in the process, and leave home coach Jordan Reynolds admitting that he believes the ‘Eees’ will go on to claim the title this season.

‘They came here and would have been pretty shocked in the first 20, but, look, they are a really good side,’ Reynolds said.

‘They will go up and compete really well, but our two clubs are at different ends of the spectrum. They were always trying to get promoted out of National Two, we are just trying to steady ourselves in this league and improve for next season.

‘Hopefully we can make some changes to make sure we can finish better, but we just faced a way superior side today.’

As for his own side’s performance, Reynolds kept his assessment very straightforward.

‘Good first 20, after that we just weren’t in the game ... we were just absolutely blown off the park for that other 60 minutes of the game,’ he said.

‘For 20 minutes out there we seemed to have energy, but after that as soon as they got in behind us and started their offload game we couldn’t keep up with them and that was probably the difference.

‘If we are going to compete or if we are going to win games, it normally has to be on our terms and I just don’t think we had it on our terms for 60 minutes today and that was the difference.’

On a bad day for local senior sides, Guernsey Raiders Ladies went down 34-3 to Streatham-Croydon while Bracknell finished strongly to edge out St Jacques Vikings 28-27.