Always a challenging place to come, Southend were our opposition on Sunday. Braintree showed glimpses of promise, within the first couple of minutes, a good opportunity to score the 1st try of the game was however unfortunately lost. The game flowed back and forth, the home team backs looked dangerous with ball in hand, as did B’tree’s. It was B’tree to score first by fullback Ethan, who then swiftly scored a second, converted by flyhalf Noah.

Southend managed to find holes in B’tree’s defence to get on the scoreboard themselves, but B’tree kept their noses in front with a try from winger Harry. In the 2nd half Southend seemed to step up a gear, strong aggressive running breaking through tackles and still exploiting holes in the B’tree defence, coupled with a bad day at the office for the B’tree lineout, meant a lot of possession being lost in an already tight game. Southend having had a player in the Sin Bin could of created an opportunity to make scoring easier, but with the player returning to the game after 5 minutes rather than the required 10, B’tree didn’t get time to use the advantage. A solitary 2nd half score by fullback Ethan for his hat trick wasn’t enough, and the final whistle blew for a Southend win 31 – 26.

Tries – Ethan (3), Harry (1).
Conversions – Noah (3)

By Chad Verguson