The Roosters line up was much changed from the previous weeks defeat at Bedford due to their high attendance at the Rugby Union Premiership final at Twickenham. That being said they still fielded a strong side with props Tommy Newman and Duncan Williams coming back in to the side. Nick Borkett showed good commitment after he touched down on the runway at 10am from a work trip to Hong Kong and made his way straight to the club.

The game started with Roosters showing they had taken in what their coach, Paul Ashbridge, had said to them at training and before the game. They were doing the basics well and completing sets before the ball was fed through hands. Mickey Blackley drew 3 defenders out wide before offloading to Barnie West who raced from the halfway line and finished in the corner. They then took a 10-0 lead when Michael Wright found himself in a massive hole created by Newmans hard line and had the simple task of walking over the line to put the ball down.

It seemed the Roosters thought they were in for an easy afternoon and took their foot off the gas. Poor discipline gave Southend 4 penalties on the Roosters try line and they made the most of it when their hooker sniped at the play of the ball and touched down, David Sykes style. Roosters then found themselves on the back foot for 10 minutes as mistakes crept in and they continued to give Southend the ball back. Their defence was resolute though and kept Southend at bay before Paul Ashbridge stripped the ball in his own half and then beat the full back to the line and scored under the posts.

Southends disappointment at failing to make the most of their good spell led to the clinical Roosters running in 8 unanswered tries. Newman scored out wide after some quick thinking from Luke Slade as he patted down a kick in to the 'freight trains' path and he never looked like being stopped. Nick Borkett used his pace to run round the full back to score. Mickey Drake then scored in the corner and from the resulting kick off Williams smashed his way through the Southend line to run the length of the pitch to touch down. Debutant Doug Smith was next to go over the whitewash before Slade, Drake and West all touched down in the same corner.

Southend then showed a strong resilience and capitalised on a few tired Roosters errors to score 3 unanswered tries to give them some reward for their effort.

Roosters got their heads up though after some choice words from captain Blackley and went down the other end to finish the scoring through Slade and then West as he scored twice in quick succession to take his personal tally to 4 for the day.

Wests performance made himself a huge candidate for MOTM along with several other players but it was awarded to Charlie Mandley for his commanding performance at Hooker.

Coach, Paul Ashbridge, was pleased with his sides efforts 'We have been working hard in training this week to get the basics right. The lads did everything I asked today and I'm delighted the effort they put in. The loss last week was disappointing but I wanted to see a reaction and I certainly saw that today.'