Amersham & Chiltern fought bravely before succumbing to a 40-23 defeat against National League 3 leaders London Irish Wild Geese.

Richie Williams’ side gave as good as they got in an evenly matched first half that saw the teams go in level at 18-18 at the break.

But they could only add an unconverted try in the second half as the hosts pushed on to consign Amersham to a third straight league defeat.

The visitors defied their lowly league position early on as they caused their table topping opponents numerous problems, with George Bartlett capitalising on Jonny Hughes’ break to score the first try of the match and put them 5-3 ahead.

Penalties were exchanged before London Irish lost their number eight to the sin bin, a numerical disadvantage that saw Amersham stretch their lead to 15-6 as Rhys Keith, in his last game for the club, went in to score.

The league leaders responded with a right wing try before they were restored to their full complement of players and they scored again soon after to take an 18-15 lead.

Tom Shiel was forced off with a finger injury before Dan Wood ensured parity at the interval with a penalty from 48 metres.

An injury to Callum Reid-Jones was a further blow to the visitors, with the match slipping away from them after the restart as two quick converted tries gave the hosts a 14-point cushion.

A response was forthcoming from the away side when Morgan Thompson darted across the whitewash following good work at the line-out.

The conversion was missed and, with Amersham failing to add to their tally in order to gain a losing bonus point, the home side scored their fifth try of the match before adding another penalty to finish off the scoring.

The loss leaves Amersham 11th in the table and with no fixture this weekend they will have to wait until January 31 to try and resurrect their season against CS Rugby 1863.