EALING Trailfinders full-back James Love is confident his side will turn their fortunes around in the Greene King IPA Championship, after giving title-favourites Bristol a fright last weekend.

Tries from Ealing’s Phil Chesters and Nathan Hannay gave them a 15-9 lead with 30 minutes left. But Bristol sparked into life and quickfire scores from Jack Wallace and Tom Varndell meant the hosts had to settle for a losing bonus point.

The result leaves Ealing just two points clear of basement side Moseley, with the teams due to meet this weekend for a massive game at Billesley Common.

Positive in defeat: Love

But with such a good performance under their belts, Love – who slotted a long-range penalty against Bristol – is adamant Ealing laid down a marker against one of the Championship’s strongest sides.

“It was a well-rounded performance from us against Bristol, and I think we played a lot of the rugby,” he said.

“We’re happy with that but of course disappointed not to get the win. Overall, I think we were pleased with how we played and then moving on to Saturday we’re in a good position to go out and play well again.

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“Whenever you lose you’re going to be disappointed so that was there too, but overall we just want to take the positives from it as we really did take it to them – they just scored two quick tries on the bounce."

Love is relishing his second season at Ealing, after he was forced to sit on the sidelines last term with injury keeping him out of much of the Trailfinders’ promotion push.

But having stayed fit so far this campaign, the 27-year-old ex-London Scottish man believes a string of victories is just around the corner for his side.

He added: “We’ll move forward to Moseley now and we’re confident that we can put on another good performance there.

“We’ve always backed ourselves to do well, but you can’t underestimate any team in this league as anyone can turn up and do well.

The 2015/16 Greene King IPA Championship kicked off on September 5. To stay up-to-date with all the latest action from across the league, follow @Champrugby on Twitter