After racking up 110 points in a record win a week earlier, Ealing Trailfinders 1871 came up against tougher opposition in the form of Chiswick, who have markedly improved after a poor start to last season due to a number of departures. Ealing dominated many areas of the game, notably the set scrums with one of the most powerful performances seen in recent years, but were restricted to a win by six tries to three by the resolute visitors.

There were league debuts for Ben Pothecary, playing at inside centre with Alex Le Bouedec in the full-back slot, and George Emmerson, who came off the bench to play in the centre. On an afternoon that brought sunshine, rain and thunder at various times, the home side took a strike against the head at the first scrum as a sign of dominance to come and soon gained a penalty but lost possession at the line out and came close to conceding a try from a kick ahead. Flanker Carlos Duarte, who had scored a hat-trick of tries against UCS, left the field early on with an ankle injury, and was replaced by Harry Reed. Chiswick continued to press but were repelled by well-organised defence sets, and 1871 took play deep into opposition territory with a superb driven maul, leading to a penalty. From the ensuing lineout the Ealing pack drove to the try line with Tim Hitchcock touching down for the opening score with 9 minutes on the clock. Just two minutes later the lead was doubled with No 8 Dave Francis surging down the right-hand side and offloading at the perfect moment for wing Josh Steadman to touch down. The conversion, like the first one, was missed, and around the quarter mark Chiswick reduced the deficit to 10-7. The gap was then increased with a devastating counter-attack started by Josh Steadman, intercepting a pass which, if it had gone to hand, would have resulted in a Chiswick score. A burst of speed down the right-hand touchline took play deep into Chiswick territory, and Harry Vidler provided the link before returning the favour to Steadman, whose pass was gratefully accepted by flanker Will Day, Vidler adding the extras. On the half-hour mark 18-year-old scrum half Callum MacGregor took a scoring pass following some outstanding running by both forwards and backs for the bonus-point try.

Turning around 22-7 to the good, 1871 were reminded that the game was far from over by the visitors forcing their way over from ruck ball after a sustained attack. It was important for Ealing to be next to score, and man-of-the-match 2nd row Reggie Elliot-Jones obliged with a quarter of the game remaining, finishing off with the referee signalling penalty advantage created by yet another dominant scrum. Ealing’s sixth and final try was scored by left wing Kyle Beck, running clever angles to evade several defenders. Chiswick pulled back to within 17 points with a try by their left wing, but such was the havoc caused by the Ealing pack that Chiswick ran out of front rows and scrums went uncontested for the last few minutes of the game.

With two good league wins under their belt, 1871 move on to an away game against a strong Hemel Hempstead side in the Counties 1 Championship cup competition, followed by a week’s rest for the Women’s World Cup Final, after which they have an away trip to Finchley for a crucial test.