Southend 54pts, Basingstoke 17

A POOR defensive performance cost Basingstoke the chance of victory.

Missed tackles allowed Southend to score too easily when they had possession.

The visitors started the brighter team and could have scored a try but Matt Lucas was stopped short of the line during a spell of applied pressure in the home 22.

A needless penalty given away five metres from Southend's line allowed the home team to clear their lines and gain field position in the Basingstoke 22 where the visitors infringed again.

The penalty was missed but, minutes later, Southend opened the scoring with a converted try due to two missed tackles.

A 12-minute spell virtually killed off the game as Sothend scored three tries, two of which were converted, for a 26-0 lead. All the tries were due to poor tackling or missed tackles.

During this spell 'Stoke had chances to score. Ian Calder broke to within five metres of the home line but a drive over the line was held up. Selwyn St Bernard led the forward charges while Kelvin Chapman ensured a good supply of ball from the lineouts.

On 32 minutes, a lucky bounce from a poor throw at a lineout by Southend allowed their No 8 to gather, brush aside four tackles and score under the posts to extend the lead to 33-0.

'Stoke scored all their 17 points in the last five minutes of the half. A well-executed move saw Calder score and convert. Then Simon Buckland intercepted on his own 22 to score a converted try followed by a Calder penalty.

The second half opened with pressure in the Southend 22 but no points. Southend then broke out to score a try on 50 minutes, again aided by missed tackles.

For 20 minutes, 'Stoke put together some nice phases but all too often a simple error would give away possession. In the final 10 minutes poor defending led to two more converted tries from Southend.

Afterwards Calder said: "At this level you can't miss tackles and get away with it. Players have to front up and take responsibility for their own play and not look to others for excuses. We will have to put things right next week."