SOUTHEND Rugby Club will be looking for a stronger start when they head to fourth placed Henley tomorrow.

The Seasiders were blown away by Old Albanians inside the opening 25 minutes last weekend.

And head coach Andy Holloway wants to avoid a repeat performance.

“The start of any game is always important and we certainly can’t afford a repeat of what happened last weekend,” said Holloway.

“There were one or two technical aspects of our play which weren’t functioning properly and we’ve got to the bottom of that.

“Our attacking side of the game wasn’t working well enough either so we’ve gone through that and worked out what went wrong.

“It’s not just going to be a case of us telling the team to strong stronger because we’ve actually worked on improving what went wrong.”

Tenth placed Southend will hope that can secure a return to winning ways.

But Henley will also be fired up after suffering a shock 12-3 defeat at Dings Crusaders last weekend.

“I think losing that game makes them even more dangerous opponents for us tomorrow,” said Holloway.

“It was slightly they were beaten because I think that now takes them out of the race for second place.

“They will definitely be out to beat us though, especially as we beat them at home earlier on in the season.”

Southend edged past Henley 21-15 at Warners Bridge in November despite ending the match with just 14 men.

However, as they bid to complete an impressive double the Seasiders will be missing full-back Andrew Frost, winger Mark Billings and prop Michael Guess.

Chris Vaughan has therefore been handed a recall at centre with Martin Freeman reverting on to the wing and Danny Cleare going back to full-back.

Todd Bailey will replace Guess while Harry Hudson has been preferred to Alan Barker in the second row.

Fly half Jack Jones and scrum half Ben Scully are also back on the bench.