Coventry RFC 12 Esher 13

Full-back Ali Chisholm kicked a 49-metre penalty in the sixth minute of added time to give Esher a last-gasp win and sentence Coventry to a third successive National League One defeat.

Turning round into a strong wind with a narrow 9-3 lead to defend in the second half, Cov dominated the next half hour and looked on well on course for victory with a fourth penalty from Cliffie Hodgson.

But it all went wrong in the last few moments as Esher, who had rarely been seen as an attacking force after the break, went over for a 78th-minute try from a close range line-out with Chisholm converting from the touchline before landing the hammer blow with the last kick of the game with Cov running down the clock but penalised for going off their feet at a ruck.

Cov saw nothing of the ball in the first 12 minutes as Esher kept things tight against the wind, and after a yellow card for home hooker Matt Price the visitors eventually went ahead through a Chisholm penalty. 
Hodgson immediately levelled with a head-on kick from inside the 22 and added a second penalty on 26 minutes to put Cov in front.

Cov were struggling to make any inroads again a well-drilled Esher defence and they went down to 14 men for a second time when Danny Wright was carded for a line-out offence, but a third Hodgson penalty after 38 minutes sent them into the break with a tenuous six-point advantage.

Cov's forwards upped the ante after the break, denying Esher for long periods and keeping play in the opposition half, and Hodgson accepted another penalty chance with Neil Sweeney in the sin bin for the visitors.

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