East London pipped Braintree 39-36 after 12 tries and two red cards in a feisty Counties One Essex match at the Memorial Ground in West Ham on Saturday.
The home side were behind inside two minutes to an unconverted try but regained the initiative with two tries from outside centre George Nicholson.
The first score on 13 minutes was set up by the forwards and the second on 21 minutes was a fine individual effort, with both converted by fly-half Alex Pearmain.
On 27 minutes Braintree charged down an attempted clearance by East London scrum-half Will Brown to score in the corner, but the conversion was missed.
East London extended their lead with a Pearmain penalty but the visitors added a converted try to leave the score 17-17 at the interval.
With the wind behind them after the restart, East London regained the early initiative and blindside flanker Simon Edscer thought he had scored but the ball was adjudged to have been held up over the line by a Braintree hand.
On 44 minutes replacement front row Dan Bracken bundled over to restore the home lead, followed by openside flanker Will Sheridan six minutes later as the lead grew to 10 points.
But Braintree narrowed the gap with an unconverted try on 56 minutes and took a two-point lead on the hour with a converted try before both teams had a player sent off.
East London reacted better and Edscer scored with 10 minutes to go, which Pearmain converted.
Scrum-half Will Brown claimed the final home try with four minutes left, but Braintree added a converted try at the death to close the gap to three points.
With 11 points from four games so far, East London host Harlow on Saturday.
East London: 1 Frazer Wilson; 2 Lewis Bourke; 3 Chris Brown; 4 Angus Tidey; 5 Sean Gill; 6 Simon Edscer; 7 Will Sheridan; 8 Michael Beecher; 9 Will Brown; 10 Alex Pearmain; 11 Rob Vassie; 12 Ryan Billinghurst; 13 George Nicholson; 14 Bill Brown; 15 Hamish Veitch. Replacements: 16 Dan Bracken; 17 Luke Staples-Preston; 18 Ed Brown.
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