Ealing's hopes of treating their biggest crowd of the season to a performance that would establish them as promotion favourites in National League Three were blown away by a dominant London Scottish.

Not even some apparently underhand tactics from a home fan could reverse the second half tide that swept the home side away at Trailfinders Sports Ground as four tries gave the visitors a 38-17 bonus-point win.

Early in the second half, angry referee Keith Lewis noticed that Scottish stand-off James Brown was being put off his kicking by the sunlight being reflected off a strategically placed silver tray behind the posts.

He raced to confront the offender and had the item confiscated by a touch judge.

Any attempt to influence Brown's performance failed miserably, however. The Scottish kicker hardly put a foot wrong as Ealing wilted during a second half assault.

Brown had already established his significance with three penalties before the interval - in stark contrast to Ealing's Ben Ward and Paddy Gill, who missed three betweeen them before the Scots got going.

And Brown was in fine form again after the break to rub in the visitors' increasing superiority as they overturned a 10-9 interval deficit.

One defeat is hardly a cause for lament and it was Ealing's first of the season. But it

could prove significant given the Rugby Football Union's desire to reduce the number of teams in National Division One next season.

If that happens, the knock-on effect would be that only one team will gain promotion from National League Three this season and second place would no longer carry the reward of a promotion play-off.

Ealing have been determined not to burn bridges with the RFU by criticising this goalpost shifting, but London Scottish president Rod Lynch did not hold back pre-match, claiming it was grossly unfair to set about changing the rules over promotion and relegation in mid-season.

Lynch was also very complimentary about the great strides Ealing are taking as a club - though the hosts may be frustrated in their ambitions this season if London Scottish maintain the 100 per cent record in the first eight games that now sees them firmly established as league leaders.

Ealing are at a level - equivalent to a fourth division - that they last occupied 15 years ago and are aiming to improve on last year's third place.

They recruited heavily in the summer, bringing in some established names with topflight experience and the set-up extends to developing the game through all the age groups.

They are also capable of drawing sizeable crowds when big-name opponents like London Scottish are in town, even if it was the visitors' fans who accounted for a large proportion of Sunday's bumper crowd of 3,412 at Vallis Way.

A superb Neville Edwards try, followed by a sin-binning of Simon Amor for the visitors and a Ward penalty appeared to have set Ealing up for a significant victory at the interval.

But it was a different tale after the break, with Brown's fourth successful penalty followed by tries for Rory Damant, Ledua Jope, Grant Livingston and Rory Gleenslade-Jones.

A late try for Owen Bruynseels was no more than a consolation for a wellbeaten home side.

Ealing are at fourth-placed Henley this weekend. Top of the table: London Scottish 38 pts, Ealing 31, Rosslyn Park 27, Henley 23.