CHRIS Vaughan offered no excuses for Southend Saxons’ 69-5 defeat at local rivals Westcliff on Saturday.

A new look Southend side were blown away by their hosts at the Gables.

And Vaughan felt Westcliff fully deserved their victory.

“Basically we were beaten by a better team,” said the long-serving centre.

“We actually started very strongly and missed a few try scoring opportunities early on.

“But Westcliff looked like a side that has been playing together for years and we showed that we are a completely new team.

“It was obviously disappointing to lose but I think that was always going to happen.

“It’s just annoying how easy we made it for them.”

The defeat was Southend’s second in succession and they are now just one of three sides to have yet to collect a single point in the London & SE Premier Division this season.

But Vaughan is now keen to put that right this weekend.

Saxons host a Guildford side - who have yet to win this season - at Warners Bridge.

And the former King John School pupil is hoping for a more complete performance.

“The Westcliff game is over and done with now so we have to move on to the next game which is a very winnable one against Guildford at the weekend,” said Vaughan.

“We learnt a lot at the weekend and now we just have to work hard this week to try and sort out a few of the problems so we can get a much better result on Saturday.”

Southend Saxons: O’Brien, Radzevicius, Johnson, Vaughan, Griffiths, Ramsey, Lewis, Reeman, Forster-Knight, Briggs, Maggiolo, O’Kill, Newton, Read, Shields