Abingdon played with the freedom of a mid-table side and gave Abbey a real scare at Rosehill.

But Abbey showed the fight and resolve which has taken them to the top of the table and firmly on course for promotion.

Abingdon’s confidence was evident early on when they turned down an early penalty in front of the posts and elected for a scrum, which they botched up.

However, they took the lead soon after with a try from scrum half Ollie Young which Mark Roberts converted.

It served as a wake-up call for Abbey who replied with a try when Arron Ross sent winger Kaspar Strugar over in the corner, though Tom Waterhouse missed a difficult conversion.

It took Abbey until the 34th minute to go in front with an excellent team try that saw skipper Sam Hallett and centre Dan Love make initial ground. Fly half Tom Bird then combined with Waterhouse who put prop Ollie Charlton over for the score. Again, a tough conversion was missed by Waterhouse and the hosts left 10–7 at the break.

Abbey extended their lead early in the second half with a move started by Joe Hallett and taken on Love before Waterhouse touched down and then added the extras to put his side 17–7 up.

However, the hosts then became ragged as lineouts were lost, passes were dropped and Abingdon’s pack threatened at the scrum.

Not surprisingly, the visitors clawed their way back with an unconverted try from impressive No.8 Gareth Smith which left only five points behind.

But Abingdon then shot themselves in the foot by gifting Abbey a bonus-point try,

Bird’s kick into the 22 should have been tidied up, but Abbey won possession and Bird put Ross over for an unconverted try. Then a sweet drop-goal from Bird with less than 10 minutes remaining finally gave Abbey some breathing space.

Abbey went close to nothing another try when replacement Fungai Mutepfa was adjudged to have been held up over the line, but a fifth score did arrive in the closing stages.

Again, Abindgon had only themselves to blame as winger JJ Viner failed to call a mark then compounded his error by kicking straight into the arms of House who cantered over the line. Replacement No.8 Mike Beckly sent the conversion wide, but Abbey had done enough to maintain their 100% winning record this season.

The win put Abbey 13 points clear of second-placed Swindon College Old with two matches remaining. They are without a fixture this weekend due to a break in the league.

Abbey: Waterhouse (Strugar 71), Warwick (Baptista 40), Ross, Love, Strugar (Warwick 55), Bird, Bevan, Charlton, Collier (Mutepfa 55), Postlethwaite (Collier 60), S.Hallett (c), Shaw (Knights 40), House, J.Hallett (Shaw 71), Beckly.

Referee: C. Pearce (Staffordshire).