SOUTH Woodham Ferrers were beaten 38-28 at Wymondham in London Two North East.

This was a game where Woodham’s defence showed uncharacteristic frailties, especially in the face of Wymondham’s well-rehearsed running moves on their very large pitch.

The home side opened the scoring with a converted try in the first 10 minutes, bursting through holes in the back line to score under the posts.

But Woodham hit back soon after when their scrum proved too much for Wymondham and a quick strike allowed scrum half Kieran Ballinger to sprint round the blind side, through the defence and over the line to score.

However, the conversion was missed, setting a trend that was to plague the visitors throughout the game.

Woodham drew ahead shortly after when the Wymondham skipper was yellow carded for a high tackle.

The resulting penalty was punted deep into the home side’s 22 where Woodham scored their second try from a driving maul off the line out.

Wymondham scored next when they too put a penalty kick into the Woodham 22, crossing the whitewash after a well worked move from the resulting line out.

The try was converted and they moved into the lead.

In the closing moments of the first half a Jamie Cox penalty brought the visitors to within one point as Wymondham led 14-13 at the break.

The second half turned into a try-fest with Wymondham scoring four times to Woodham’s three.

The home side were able to take advantage of a series of missed tackles that allowed them to break clear and exploit their running game.

Woodham did not give up and tries from Tate Holliday and two from substitute Alex Baker meant the visitors secured their own try bonus but without the extra points for the conversion they fell short of the important extra losing bonus.

Woodham, who beat Saffron Walden 32-15 in their first outing of the season, are now fifth in the standings.

Elsewhere, Thurrock secured an exciting 26-25 victory at Dartfordians in London One South to work their way up to seventh in the table.

But it has been a tough start to the London Three Essex season for Basildon who were relegated from London Two North East last term.

Basildon were beaten 49-24 at home to Upminster at the weekend, meaning they have now kicked off the new campaign with back-to-back defeats and sit second from bottom in the early league standings.

In Essex One, Canvey Island were beaten 47-12 by Dagenham in the first clash of the season while Billericay lost 22-20 at Maldon.