Canterbury reach for the ball about Southend

Canterbury secured an important win over Southend on Saturday, running in eight tries in a 51-14 victory at Merton Lane to end a five-game losing streak.

The victory took the city club up to ninth in National 2 South and seven points ahead of the third-bottom Essex side.

Martyn Beaumont scored four tries, the first of which came after just four minutes.

Winger Ricky Mackintosh stormed away for the second score and it was 15-0 12 minutes later when Kwaku Asiedu finished off good work from Beaumont and Dave Devlin-Jones.

The visitors did register a converted try shortly before the break but a minute after the interval, Scott Browne gave Canterbury breathing space with a penalty and soon after, Alex Veale secured the bonus point with the side's fourth try.

A catch-and-drive from prop Ruairi McLeod, his first for the club, extended the lead but the visitors replied with a try on the counter attack.

Almost immediately the city club sent the ball wide and Beaumont went over for his second try.

Beaumont then burst through with a 50 metre run for a stunning try and went even further for his fourth in the dying seconds when a Southend pass was intercepted five metres from the Canterbury line and Beaumont raced the length of the pitch to score.