Beccles 22, Romford and Gidea Park 37: Beccles suffered a sixth successive defeat in London 2NE – but suggested better times might be around the corner with a spirited performance against the leaders.

Romford stunned the hosts by scoring four tries in the opening 20 minutes.

But Beccles responded well and had reduced the deficit to 22-17 at the break with three tries of their own. Reece Ling touched down from close range after a line-out and then Marcus Sale weighed in with a double, scoring from a tapped penalty before finishing off a neat backs move.

The leaders eased the pressure with a try just after the break, only for Beccles to score again when Luke Wade touched down in the corner. Sadly for the hosts that was their final score, with Romford scoring another try and a penalty to kill off any hopes of an overdue home win.

Still, it was a decent performance from Beccles who will now be aiming to get off the mark against Saffron Walden on Saturday.

Skipper Shaun Lake was certainly encouraged by what he witnessed on Saturday.

'Considering we were playing against the league leaders it was an encouraging performance from the lads,' he said. 'Things are coming together now, there is a good spirit in the camp and hopefully this will be stepping stone to better things.'

Preparations for the game were hardly ideal, with Matthew Goode needing hospital treatment in midweek after injurying his back in training.