Relentless waves of attack from the kickoff until the final whistle, backed up by solid defensive structure whenever threatened produced a 13-try win and a clean sheet against local rivals Wasps. Ealing Trailfinders 1871 have now recorded seven victories with a solitary narrow loss away to Finchley, who lead the table by one point with the last of the first round of fixtures to come on 6 December.

Ealing brought in the returning Albert Stoute at hooker and welcomed back Adrian Jones in the second row, with Petru Boian starting on the left wing in an otherwise similar line-up to the previous week. They began confidently, stealing a line-out when Wasps had won a penalty and kicked to touch, and after forcing a scrum from a kick deep into Wasps territory opened the scoring through Gereint Price. Ten minutes later, Will Day picked up at the base of a dominant scrum 5 metres out on the left, went blind and forced his way over the try line. Captain and prop Pat Nash was then on the score sheet again after a brace the previous week, touching down as the 1871 pack drove powerfully from a penalty line-out. With a quarter of the game gone, flanker Archie Baxter secured the four-try bonus, finishing off a move started with a powerful run into the heart of the defence by prop Leo Codrington-Lambert. A fifth try followed with Boian touching down from short range following a series of pick-and-goes by the forwards from a penalty in the front of the posts. Ealing went straight back onto the attack from the restart. In-form centre George Emmerson took a short pass, accelerated through an inviting gap and left the Wasps defence in his wake, running in from 60 metres. Day scored his second of the day to leave 1871 with a healthy lead at the break of 45-0.

With sterner battles to come in the next two weeks, Ealing showed no let-up in intensity but were guilty of rushing their decision-making in the first 10 minutes of the second period until rediscovering their structure, although the improvement was aided by two yellow cards to tiring Wasps players. High-scoring prop Tim Hitchcock, on as a replacement, went over from a driving maul, and Emmerson added his second of the day, going over untouched from a quickly taken penalty 40 metres out. Toby Holt, normally a flanker but filling in at centre due to injuries, showed good strength to finish off an attack down the right, and a late flurry saw second scores of the day for Baxter, Holt and finally Hitchcock, from yet another catch-and-drive. Harry Vidler landed a total of 10 conversions to add to his impressive total for the season.

With two tough games to come before the Christmas break, away to third-placed Hampstead and a resurgent Chiswick, who have beaten league leaders Finchley, coach Phil Smith was pleased with the intensity and execution shown throughout the game, other than the start of the second half, praising the forwards for regularly crossing the gain line and producing a steady stream of quality possession for the backs to work with. Joint man of the match were Day and Archie, with special mentions for Boian’s running and handling skills and for Nash, who led from the front.