SOUTHEND Rugby Club’s head coach Andy Holloway felt playing with no fear helped his side stage a stunning second half fight back against Ealing on Saturday.

The Seasiders found themselves 26-10 down after a hesitant first half. But Southend surged back to secure a 32-32 draw at Warners Bridge, with Chris Waring scoring a try which was converted by Simon Hoult in the dying seconds of the game.

“The ambition of the players was far greater in the second half and they played with less fear,” said Holloway.

“Early on people weren’t prepared to try things and just kicked the ball away. But when you’re 26-10 down you have no choice but to try things and I think this has shown us we have nothing to be frightened off.

“It’s good to have got a draw from the position we were in but at the same time if we had played like we can in the first half as well then we could have won.”

Ealing, who finished third in National Two South last season, raced into an early 6-0 lead with two penalties from Neil Hallet.

Southend hit back with a penalty of their own from Andrew Frost but Ealing remained on top and it was no great surprise when their stand off Ben Ward collected the ball 15 metres out and charged between the posts.

Hallet converted and then added a penalty to make it 16-3.

Southend’s boost came straight from the restart as the ball moved from hand to hand until it reached Mark Billings on the wing. He stretched his legs, stepped inside and touched down.

Frost made the conversion and Southend were back in touch at 16-10.

Hallet responded with a penalty for Ealing which made it 19-10 at half time and it was the visitors who opened the scoring at the start of the second half when prop Dinos Alexopoulos barged his way over for their second try.

Hallet converted to make it 26-10 and Southend were looking defeat in the face.

Head coach Holloway decided to react with some changes from the bench. Hoult came on for Frost, Sonny Gay for Dan Boughtwood and Jo Van Der Molen for Lee Guess.

Mike Stanley moved to fly half and the team responded immediately as again quick handling saw Billings race in for his second try of the game.

Skipper Chris Green then also touched down after being teed up by Sam Arnott and when Hoult converting Southend now trailed 26-22. They fell further behind to another Hallet penalty but Hoult soon kicked one of his own to make 29-25 with 10 minutes remaining.

Hallet added a further three points for his side but, with only seconds left, Southend turned the ball over near the Ealing line.

They then drove closer to the line until Chris Waring went over virtually under the posts.

Hoult converted to make sure the game ended 32-32 and with four tries in the game Southend finished with three points to Ealing’s two, leaving them third in the table.

>Southend: Frost, Cleare, Stanley, Vaughan, Billings, Boughtwood, Arnott, Williams, Keenan, M Guess, Waring, Barker, Green, L Guess, Vine.