NEW-look Bournemouth kicked off their home campaign with a humbling five-try defeat to Redingensians at Chapel Gate on Saturday.

The dogged Rams decided to chip away at the scoreboard with a series of first-half kicks and reaped their rewards as the game opened up during the latter stages as they racked up a bonus-point 41-8 victory.

There were early signs of the difficult afternoon in store for Lions as Redingensians pushed forward during the opening exchanges while the hosts struggled to keep the ball in the face of some stout defending from the visitors.

James Brooks kicked the visitors in front with 15 minutes on the clock, a lead that was doubled by fly-half Luke Flower’s pragmatic decision to plant an opportunist 20-metre drop-goal between the sticks despite his team seemingly destined to score the opening try.

A couple of Lions attacks came to nothing and Brooks landed a second penalty but missed another before Lewis Dennett replied with a kick of his own to give Bournemouth hope before half-time.

But Brooks was back on target three minutes after the break and the Rams seized control when Ollie Foxley collected his own chip to drive over the line for the game’s opening try.

Having finally got the breakthrough, Redingensians sought to press home their advantage and scored a second try when Steve Bryant snatched Flower’s cross-field kick on the right wing and crashed over the line.

Tom Morgan hit back by going over for Bournemouth’s only try of the game but the move of the match saw Foxley set up David Massey for the visitors’ third just three minutes later as any hopes of a comeback were dashed.

Bournemouth were a spent force and Flower struck another pinpoint cross-kick to set up Bryant’s second before a slick passing move saw full-back Ollie Mann round off the scoring.

The result left Lions languishing in the bottom two of the embryonic standings as one of two teams yet to pick up a league point in National Three South West.

Lions: Morgan, Palmer, Roberts, Terry, Sutherland, Hatch, Dennett, Hardcastle, Manning, Firetto, Warwick, Scott, Bovett, Rees, Hennings. Replacements: Graesser, Sanchez, Spikings.