Oxford University were made to work hard very hard for their 30-22 victory at Esher on Monday night.

The Dark Blues only showed any fluency in patches and did just enough to hold off their spirited opponents.

They will certainly need to up their game if they want to compete against Saracens and Sale Sharks in their next two matches.

Oxford rested captain Dan Rosen, so lock Nic Van Zyl led the side.

His captaincy got off to a nightmare start after the visitors failed to secure the kick off and lost their first line-out.

There was less than a minute on the clock when Esher full back James Copsey forced his way over after fly half Neil Hallett’s kick turned the Blues’ defence.

Hallett added the conversion, and although Oxford fly half Rhodri James replied with a penalty, the visitors lacked penetration.

Oxford had more of the territory, but showed little imagination as they sought to breach a stubborn defence.

There was the odd powerful run, yet wings Sean Morris and Tim Catling did not see enough of the ball.

James dragged a penalty wide with the last play of the half, but there was a lot of improvement required.

By contrast, the second half began in great fashion with James’s well-weighted chip giving full back Will Browne an easy run in to score on 44 minutes.

James converted and did the same six minutes later after Browne wriggled through a tiny gap to touch down.

Esher kept in touch when centre Callum Wilson latched on to a fine miss pass and Hallett converted.

And the hosts levelled with Hallett’s penalty on 64 minutes.

Parity was short-lived as James slotted a three-pointer himself four minutes later.

The Dark Blues went 25-17 ahead when right wing Morris chased his own kick through to score on the right.

Left wing Catling, the star of last year’s Varsity Match victory, opened his account for the campaign after benefitting from his teammates’ excellent handling, and wrong-footing of the defence.

Esher deservedly reduced the arrears when wing Neville Edwards broke centre Alex Cheeseman’s tackle and powered his way down the touchline.

The hosts ended the match on the attack, but a knock-on curtailed their final try-scoring hope.

Oxford University: Browne, Morris* (Record 72), Cheeseman*, Allfrey, Catling*, James, Klopper, Johnson#, Rogers (Oliver 66), Tomaszczyk* (Keys 72), Guinness (Davies* 54), Van Zyl*, Rickner (Makoto 63), Gibson, Carter. * Denotes Blue. # Denotes international.