Towcestrians entertained Southend at Greens Norton Road on Saturday in what was a must win for both sides, neither having picked up any wins in the league to date, and both looking for a confidence boosting victory to take forward to the rest of the season and the large crowd were treated to a ten try thriller.

It was the visitors who took the early initiative with a score on just 2 minutes, with the try unconverted Tows then soon lost a player to a yellow card to hand the advantage to Southend, however the resulting straight forward penalty was missed to a sigh of relief from Tows supporters, it was Southends turn to take a card as they were reduced to 14 men and quick thinking scrum half Gus Hopewell took advantage to take a tap and outpace the cover to score, converted by James Falvey to take a slender 7 - 5 lead into half-time.

Tows started the second half much more brightly and scored immediately, Alex Chalcraft collecting Falveys kick to offload to Tom Threlfall who then returned the pass for Chalcraft to score, this was developing into a game of two styles with Southends abrasive pick and drive style against the Tows attempts to move the ball wide and stretch the play, it was Southend who scored next through their forwards but Tows quickly responded with Nathan Payne going over to give Tows a 19 - 12 lead, Southend again responded with a close range forwards try converted to bring the scores level with 15 minutes to play.

Tows front row curse continued when on-loan Coventry tight head Fred Clark was carried off with a season ending knee injury, all Tows players and supporters wish him a speedy recovery, with Tows scrum weakened Southend took control and then the lead after their fly-half danced through to score, 19 - 26 down Tows needed to respond and they produced a period of sustained pressure, with the visitors conceding penalties, Tows camped on the Southend line, but handling errors let Tows down, it was Alex Chalcraft who broke the line eventually for his second of the game, again converted by Falvey to draw the scores level at 26 - 26, with Tows now pressing a quick blindside break from the scrum and a defence splitting pass from Ronnie Speakman saw Chalcraft hit the gap and cruise over for his hat-trick, again brilliantly converted by James Falvey to give the Tows a 7 point lead with injury time to play, however, the drama was not over as Southend marched back up the pitch to score wide out, the conversion just slipping past the posts, Tows held on for the last few minutes to see the game out and claim a bonus point victory, Southend although disappointed claiming 2 losing bonus points.

Elsewhere around the club, Tows 2nd XV returned from Birmingham with a crushing 19 - 76 league victory against Old Halesonians and Tows 3rd XV turned around a 19 - 0 deficit to see off Old Scouts 2nd XV away 19 - 62, Tows colts completed a clean sweep for all sides this weekend with a 0 - 51 win at Rushden & Higham