COACHES can be bundles of nervous energy but Wharfedale's coach Jon Feeley was calmness personified in the second half of their SSE National One League home match against Esher last Saturday.

Part of the explanation was having played up the slope in the first half and restricted the Surrey visitors to two penalties, the Greens had also scored a "beautifully executed" catch-and-drive try for Dan Solomi.

But, after trailing 6-5 at the interval, the major reason was that a vast portion of the second half was played with Esher deep in defence as the Greens triumphed 8-6.

The only nerve-wracking element was Feeley remembering the recent narrow defeats at The Avenue to top sides such as Rosslyn Park (17-12) and Coventry (17-13).

However, the victory was perhaps a sign that a relatively inexperienced side are finally learning the virtues of putting in an 80-minute performance.

Feeley said: "The overwhelming majority of the second half was played in Esher's final third with us trying to get over their line.

"Maybe eagerness cost us from player one to player 15 in therms of tries but the victory was sewn in the first half when we held our nerve and restricted Esher to two penalties and prevented them from scoring a try.

"Our try came from two yards following an excellent platform, while Simon Willet deserves praise for taking over the line-out calls following the absence of first Richard Rhodes and then Josh Burridge.

"That isn't easy in your first season at a club but Simon has showed himself to be a senior player.

"The bravest thing he did was on the final line-out when we needed to get the ball off the pitch.

"You would have expected us to throw it short but, and maybe it was a bluff, Alex Powell caught it at the tail and we booted the ball off the pitch for the victory. That line-out was as important as us scoring our try."

Taylor Prell received a yellow card was making contact with a player in the air, and Feeley thought he was unfortunate to say the least.

He said: "I have had the benefit of studying a video but Taylor actually took two knees in the ribs, and it was the touch judge on the far side that gave the ruling."