SOUTHEND centre Sonny Gay enjoyed a debut to remember as the Seasiders saw off Richmond 35-22 in their opening fixture of the season.

The 20-year-old from Thurrock bagged a fine try on his first start.

And that set Southend on their way to a successful start to the new National Two South campaign.

“It was a great way to get underway,” said Gay.

“I was really pleased to get my try and to win the game was brilliant as well.”

Gay joined Southend last January after a short spell with Thurrock.

Before then he had been playing in Ireland but he showed his skills on Saturday by cutting through Richmond’s defence to score his side’s first try of the season.

By then, fit-again full-back Andrew Frost had already kicked a penalty and he was also successful with the conversion to make it 10-0.

Frost then added another penalty before dominant Southend raced even further ahead when Lee Guess, back at flanker, charged forward.

He shipped the ball across to Frost and his neat inside pass found Chris Vaughan who touched down to score.

Moments later, a flare up at the scrum saw yellow cards shown to Mark Williams and Richmond’s John Ashton before a penalty from Luke Cousins opened the scoring for the visitors.

That made it 20-3 at half-time but Southend were soon even further ahead when captain Chris Green barged through from 30 metres out to score.

Frost converted but Richmond replied with a try of their own when fly-half Luke Cousins went over after some determined play from the forwards.

Cousins kicked the conversion but Southend scored next to make sure of the bonus points when Danny Cleare went on a weaving run before teeing up Mark Billing to score.

With the game drawing to its conclusion Southend seemed to take their foot off the pedal allowing Richmond to run two tries in the final minutes, one from Joe Trayfoot and the other from full back Jon Wehbe.

Cousins converted one of them taking the final score to 35 – 22 but Seasiders’ head coach Andy Holloway was still a happy man at the final whistle.

“It was a great way to start the season,” said Holloway.

“We faded a bit towards the end which was disappointing but the game was all over after 50 minutes.

“All but two of the side are Essex lads as well and that made the performance and result even sweeter.”

Southend: Frost, Billings, Gay, Vaughan, Cleare, Boughtwood, Arnott, Williams, Keenan, M Guess, Waring, Barker, Green, L Guess, Vine