MENTAL TOUGHNESS WILL BE THE KEY

By MARK BENGOECHEA
MIKE SCHMID believes mental toughness will be the key to Esher’s drive for National One title glory this season.
The league leaders face Wharfedale at home on Saturday buoyed by a 13th win from 14 at Blaydon last weekend.
Local rivals London Scottish kept up the heat with victory over Tynedale to cut the gap to five points.
But Esher Director of Rugby Schmid is delighted with the way his players are handling the pressure of being frontrunners as they approach the Christmas mini break.
He said: “It’s almost easier being the chasers rather than being on top because you always have got something to focus on.
“But I’m very happy with where we are at this stage and if you had said before the start of the season that we’d be top with only one defeat, I’d have taken it.
“We must keep our focus and concentration with every game because if you let that slip, as we did at Sedgley Park, you will lose games.
“It’s very tight at the top but then it’s tough to win a league and we need to maintain that mental toughness.”
Schmid has called for one final big effort before Christmas to finish the first half of the season on a high at Molesey Road on Saturday.
He said: “It’s the last one before Christmas and we must maintain 100 per cent concentration because Wharfedale are a good side.
“But the boys have been playing some great rugby at home and we’re hoping for a big crowd to cheer us on.”
Schmid admits he was unhappy with some elements of the 29-17 win at Blaydon, a game that saw Sam Ulph break the 200-point barrier this season with a 16-point haul with the boot.
Schmid said: “We had a Scottish referee and we were getting penalised at the breakdown all the time. We had nine penalties against us and a sin-binning in the first half.
“It was a massive concern for us because we have set our stall out to have eight or less in a game.”
Blaydon led 12-6 at half-time but Esher hit back with tries from Chris York and Sam Smith to stretch their winning running to five while Charles Baumberg added a drop goal.
However, Schmid was also unhappy with some of the Blaydon tactics. He added: “I don’t want to make a big deal of it but to have only two match balls at the game is very old school.
“It slows the game down but I don’t think there are any rules about it so they were within their rights. It was disappointing to see a very good side resort to such tactics.”
Esher expect to have on-loan Harlequins stars Seb Jewell and Sam Stitcher back after injury to face Wharfedale.
Schmid added:  “We’ll be putting out our best possible team and hope to be selecting from a healthy squad with no new injuries.”