SOUTH Woodham Ferrers started their season with a convincing 41-19 win against local rivals Rochford Hundred.

Woodham’s scheduled first game of the new campaign - against Epping Upper Clapton - was postponed last weekend due to an unplayable pitch.

And their head coach Tony Woods was delighted to finally get underway in such fine fashion.

“It was a great way to start the season after last week,” said Woods.

“The boys have worked on the pitch, got the game on, grafted in training and put a message out to the rest of the league”

Woodham led 26-12 at half-time and stepped things up after the break to secure a commanding win.

“At half time the boys were disappointed to not have scored more points but an inspirational chat got the boys going again and they went out all guns blazing,” said Woods.

“Of course it’s only a start but we have a plan for the season and Saturday showed just what we can do for the rest of the season”

Woodham opened the scoring at the weekend with a try from Jake Rawinsky before Warren Duggan also touched down to make it 12-0.

A fantastic pass from Lewis Gilbert then enabled James Price to score the try of the game under posts before Rochford hit back with a try of their following an interception.

However, Woodham again replied to lead 26-12 at half-time.

After the break, Woodham began to take control with number eight Ross Noakes making a huge impression on his debut after entering the action.

He helped man-of-the-match Oli Trigg score next for Woodham, before another rolling maul from outside the 22 led to Ryan Marshall also touching down.

Woodham had earlier been shown a yellow card at the start of the second half before Rochford were hit by two of their own as they sunk to their second defeat in succession.

But for Woodham it was a far more positive afternoon and the impressive Trigg was thrilled by the triumph.

“It was good to finally get a run out after pre-season training,” said Trigg.

“We’ve been working hard and that was shown on the pitch on Saturday after a good team performance.”

“We’ll take the positives and work on the finer margins in training to give us that running start in next week’s game.”