A vastly-depleted Canterbury side lost 37-5 at Southend in National 2 South after a nightmare Saturday.

With a host of senior players ruled out before the match and half back Nicky Woodbridge and fly half Gert De Kock (pictured) ruled out through illness on Saturday morning, Canterbury were already down to the bare bones.

However their task was made more testing as their journey to Essex took four hours which prompted a delayed kick-off and limited preparation time for the visitors.

The hosts then produced a blistering start and two scores in the opening 12 minutes and by half-time it was 24-0.

Will Alkin scored a fine try after the break but was injured in the act of scoring prompting a further reshuffle and Canterbury's Tom McArthur was sin-binned as the hosts added another 12 points after the interval.