BEN Murphy scored on his return from the Dubai Sevens but was unable to stop Southend Saxons suffering a 40-8 defeat at Westcombe Park.

Murphy’s try was his first for the Saxons since signing for the National Three London & SE side earlier this season.

And he was happy to head into the game on the back of a successful showing - with Essex University - in Dubai.

“We entered a sevens team into the open league and it was a great experience,” said Murphy.

“We had been training since September but had little game experience which clearly cost us in the end.

“We gladly got through to the quarter-finals where we narrowly lost against Qatar who put out a Fiji development side but we all really enjoyed it and I hope to be able to go back next year now.”

However, Murphy is now fully focused on Southend.

And he was disappointed not to be able to stop the Saxons suffering a fifth defeat in succession.

“It was an exciting match to go into and we knew we had to get a win to get back on track,” said Murphy.

“But in the second half they took advantage of our silly errors and used their kicker to gain easy points which was obviously frustrating, just like the result.”

The defeat saw Southend slip down to 11th in the table, just one place and four points above the relegation zone.

And Murphy believes the long list of unavailable players are contributing towards the Saxons’ troubles.

“Injuries are preventing us week in week out at the moment,” said Murphy.

“We still have a strong squad and bundles of talent which we can replace but it hinders our game plan when doing so because we’re replacing players last minute.”

As a result, Southend have still not won since seeing off Guernsey at the end of October.

But Murphy is keen for the indifferent run to end when Saxons head to local rivals Westcliff in their final outing of 2016.

“Winning against local rivals Westcliff would give us a massive confidence boost after losing five games on the trot like we have recently,” said Murphy.

“We are expecting a big crowd to turn up which will work in our favour and I’m sure it’s not going to feel like an away game.

“But, after beating them narrowly earlier on in the season, we know what to expect and know they won’t be walkovers but they’ve been in good form in the last few weeks.”

Southend’s other points on Saturday came from the boot of Tom Ashton who returned to the starting line-up after recovering from a broken ankle.

Southend Saxons: Meads, Murphy, Ngaluafe, Vaughan, Wiltshire, Ashton, Gould, Strachan, Forster-Knight, Bailey, Leavasa, Court-Rhind, Shields, Morrison, Legge Replacements: Reeman, O’Kill & Friswell