'Keep your foot on the gas"

By MARK BENGOECHEA
SKIPPER Dave Slemen has called for Esher to keep their foot hard on the gas at Launceston on Saturday.
Fly-half Slemen was thrilled with the ambition his side showed in the 28-7 victory over promotion rivals Cambridge at Molesey Road last weekend.

It was the perfect response to Esher’s shock defeat at Sedgley Park that ended their perfect start of eight straight wins.
Now Slemen has called for a repeat in Cornwall as the National One leaders keep their sights on a place in the Championship next season.
Slemen said:  “The players really wanted to get out there against Cambridge and make amends for the previous week.
“We let ourselves down at Sedgley Park but you don’t mind losing if you react to it and that’s what we did.
“Sometimes you need a wake-up call and I think we got that. But against Cambridge we didn’t let our foot off the gas and it was a pleasure to play in it.
“We played with ambition from the beginning and that’s our strength.
“Cambridge would have fancied their chances but we felt we had a point to prove and that says a lot about our character.
“Now we need to keep this up by winning at Launceston before we go into a week’s break.
“The key is to keep playing with ambition. We went wide straight away, and that has to be our mindset.”
On-loan Harlequins centre Seb Jewell capped a fine display with the opening try while Rob Anderson and Tom Warren got the others with Sam Ulph kicking 13 points.
But Esher’s victory was based on a fine display from the pack, who played the fire and freedom coach Mike Schmid has been demanding.
Schmid said: “That was our best performance of the season.  We had everything in our game – pace, determination and purpose. I also felt our defence was absolutely tremendous.
“Full credit to the boys.  I was exceptionally proud of what they did; it was great to see the endeavour they tried to play with and the purpose, passion and the fire.
“It was nice to have Seb Jewell back in midfield and I thought he was really on his game.
“We knew we had pace outside and that if we could play with some width, we would trouble them.
“It was a big, big win against a very ambitious club who have spent a lot more money than us.
“You don’t like to say it was a must-win game this early on the season but after the defeat at Sedgley Park it was a game we need to win. The boys knew they had let themselves down but full credit to them. I always said we had a lot of character in this team.”
But Schmid warns Esher must play with the same intensity at Launceston if they are not to suffer a second defeat of the campaign.
He added: “They are tough at home and always play well there.  They made a few good signings in the summer and if we give them too many opportunities, they will take them.
“We need to continue with the defence against Cambridge and really get in teams’ faces. When we do that, we are at our best.
“We need to build from this performance now.  You have to learn from defeat because defeat hurts. But hopefully this will be the catalyst we need.”