Esher 46 Coventry RFC 5

Coventry were battered by eight tries as Esher headed for the top of League One.

Winger Dominic Lespierre touched down for their only try in the 52nd minute to offer some brief respite from the onslaught at Molesey Road.

Coventry’s head coach Scott Morgan couldn’t believe it.

“This is the same group of players that we had last year. What’s going wrong?” he said. “It’s the worst we’ve been for the four years I’ve been here.

“I’ve got to look at myself and the other coaches. Is it us or the players?”

The home side used the ball well in the first half with Paul Roberts’ distribution giving his backs every chance to shine and indeed they did scoring five first half tries and bringing the bonus point up in 33 minutes.

Coventry had no answer in the first half to the home side’s speed but in the second the visitors’ forwards managed to get into it and for 20 minutes drove Esher back to their own goalline. But Lespierre’s try was their only reward and Esher finished the half with two more tries. Roberts converted only three of the eight.

Esher director of rugby Mike Schmidt said: “We train for these things and when it goes well it’s superb.

“I’ve been coaching this long because I love seeing the guys play and today it was great. Can we keep this intensity up? That is a huge ask.”

Andy Wright opened Esher’s scoring following some fast passes.

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