Director of rugby Mike Schmid has defended the character of lock Paul Barker after he landed a three-month ban from rugby last Wednesday.

Barker, at an RFU disciplinary hearing last week, pleaded guilty to two charges of dangerous charging of an opponent in December’s Championship defeat to Nottingham at Molesey Road.

The second row is suspended until March, but Schmid has defended his man.

“Paul was my very first signing for Esher. He is a guy of exceptional character and has a previously unblemished disciplinary record," he said.

"He plays hard but fair and is a great sportsman.

“We are disappointed the panel found intent in one of the challenges, which is why they have ruled in the upper end of the severity scale and will consider appealing.

"As it stands Paul would be available for our first play-off match.

"The risk with appealing is that the ban can be extended. We will wait until we have all the paperwork to decide the next move."

Just when Esher's availability issues appeared to be subsiding the news compounded the misery of Sunday’s 27-7 defeat at Championship leaders Bristol.

Lock saw Ian Kench was stretchered off with concussion while Charlie Matthews was withdrawn early on with a knee problem making them major doubts for Saturday's visit of Cornish Pirates.

One person definitely out of the clash is back row Tom Alexander, who fractured his cheekbone at the weekend having switched to the second row in the wake of Matthews and Kenhc's exits.

"I was reasonably happy with our performance and while we weren't as good as we have been going forward, we certainly backed up last week's performance with our defence," he added.

"Our physicality was outstanding.

"We have three big home games to go until the play-offs and we have are targeting those games for wins."