SOUTHEND Saxons’ director of rugby Josh Ward was left feeling ‘very proud’ of his players after a stunning win at table-topping Sudbury.

Seven days on from suffering a frustrating 20-18 defeat at bottom of the table Leighton Buzzard, Southend stunned the league leaders.

And Ward was rightfully pleased with the performance.

“I’m very, very proud of the group,” said Ward.

“We demanded a response after last week and had a good week of preparation.

“The boys have gone out there and shown what they can do.

“We’ve always said we can beat anyone in this league on our day and we’ve shown that with this win.

“It really is special to get the victory and we’ll enjoy it.

“We’ll eat lots of cake and pizza to celebrate but then we will be thinking about the next game and making sure we build on the win.

“But it’s certainly one to enjoy.

“Sudbury had only lost once all season and hadn’t been beaten at home at all until now.”

The victory kept Southend fifth in the London One North standings and also delighted centre Callum Smith, “It was a great win and I think the conditions definitely helped us,” said Smith.

“We know they like a running game but we were up for it right from the very first minute and I think being underdogs helped us.

“We want to keep this going now.

“We want to keep training hard, keep the momentum going and keep on turning up on the Saturdays.”

Ben Lloyd and Jake Rawinsky scored Southend’s tries in the victory while the rest of the points came from the boot of Ramsey.

However, Saxons will now not be in back in league action until a week on Saturday when they host Amersham & Chiltern at Warners Bridge.

Southend Saxons: Ramsey, Rawinsky, Smith, Vaughan, Day, Lloyd, Branch, Bass, M Bevan, Reeman, Buckley, Newton, Whatling, A Bevan, Wagstaff.

Replacements: Justice, Forster-Knight & MacVeigh.