yesterday after the national squad demolished a visiting British side 87-0 at National Sports Club.

The opposition -- made up of sailors off the British frigate HMS London -- set sail for the Azores last night with another loss under their belts. Concerned over the approach of Hurricane Erika, six other visiting NATO ships left earlier yesterday, wiping out a scheduled B match.

For Bermuda coach Pete Shillingford, Sunday's friendly was a perfect stepping stone to his squad's upcoming two-match tour of Ontario. They hope to have better success than the HMS London crew, who two weeks ago suffered defeat at the hands of a select team in Newfoundland.

"It was very pleasing to see things that we worked on in training coming together,'' Shillingford said.

"But there are also areas that did not come together. We are trying to work on our rucking game because we are a small side. We will still need work on our mauling as well.

"There are a few technical things that have to be worked on such as ball retention, passing and tackling, but these are early days. It was our first match.'' Bermuda skipper Alvin Harvey and Sean Kelly had three tries, while Derek Hurdle, Craig MacIntyre and Patrick Cooper, Mike Gorrie each had two tries each. Ross Webber chipped in with a penalty and seven conversions. Bermuda besieged the visitors right from the outset with a penalty from Webber in the opening minutes.

Minutes later Derek Hurdle went over on the left to add five more points with an unconverted try. Skipper Harvey at centre and winger Sean Kelly combined, with Kelly slipping past the London defence to boost the score to 15-0 with that converted effort.

Number eight Patrick Cooper, looking unusually fleet-footed in the middle of the park, had his first score on the left after a scrum.

The score was now 20-0 with the Bermudians dominating play consistently and HMS London unable to get any semblance of a rhythm going. Harvey and Mike Gorrie then increased the lead to 34-0 with two more converted tries.

A shrill blast from referee Dennis Dwyer's whistle opened the second half but any chance of a London comeback was frozen when second row Hurdle went over on the left after a series of passes between Ashley Redmond, Sean Field and Cooper.

Barely 30 seconds had gone. Soon after Redmond put himself on the score sheet with a try from close range that Webber converted.

Dave Bird found himself with some space after a line out on the right and sprinted 12 metres before finding a rampaging Cooper who made no mistake. Up 50-0, Bermuda received tries from Kelly, Harvey, Gorrie and MacIntyre to complete the rout.