MARCUS Bloomberg bagged the first brace of his career to help Southend Saxons superbly see off Tauntons Titans 18-8 at Warners Bridge on Saturday.

The 28-year-old hooker scored twice in the first half as Saxons shocked their third placed visitors.

And Bloomberg was delighted to have played a prominent part in the National Two South success.

“It was a first for me and it’s not often I get one, let alone two,” said Bloomberg.

“Getting the two tries was a real buzz and you could see that if you were on the side-lines.

“I got a little bit too excited but it was a huge performance for us.

“We stuck to our game plan and structures and put a really good defensive show which was just what we needed after last week.”

The victory came after Southend had been beaten by struggling Canterbury in their last outing and moved them up to 13th in the table.

But Bloomberg felt the manner of the victory showed Saxons should be far higher up the standards.

“I firmly believe we should be a lot higher up but we have had lots of key players out injured and that hasn’t helped,” said the former London Scottish hooker.

“I believe Saturday was the best team we have had out this season and now I'm hoping we build on that and take it in to next week.

“We should be buzzing and want to show the rest of the league what we are capable of.”

Southend dominated large spells of the match, despite playing for 30 minutes with only 14 men and were ultimately denied a larger winning margin by a number of baffling decisions from the officials.

Those problems were not apparent early on though and Bloomberg’s first try came just after seven minutes which Brad Burr converted to make it 7-0.

Burr extended that lead with a penalty before Taunton’s fly half Jerry East got the visitors off the mark with a penalty of his won.

But Bloomberg then took centre stage as he sprinted down the right touch-line to touch down in the corner.

Burr’s conversion struck the post and Southend led 15-3 at the break before his penalty at the start of the second half extended the home-side’s lead even further.

However, with Southend down to 14 men after full-back Danny Cleare was yellow carded, Taunton hit back with an unconverted try from scrum half Lewis Webb.

But that proved to be the final score of the game as Saxons, who had captain Kris Chesney harshly yellow carded towards the end, comfortably saw out the closing stages.

Southend Saxons: Cleare, Driver, Burr, Vaughan, Billings, Ashton, Powell,Fardell, Bloomberg, Bevans-Royston, Chesney, Fombo, Hudson, Kellard, Legge.

Replacements: Day-White, Jackson, Shields, Nash & Coleman