HEAD coach Will Croker singled out Jack Hennings for special praise after Bournemouth had downed the National Three South West leaders for the second time in three games.

Hennings led from the front on his 100th start for the club as the Lions dislodged Brixham from top spot thanks to a hard-fought 15-0 victory over the Devon outfit at Chapel Gate.

Victory, which propelled Bournemouth from eighth to fifth in the table, came a fortnight after they had lowered the colours of Barnstaple to knock them off pole position.

Barnstaple’s 29-5 win at bottom-placed Chippenham saw them return to the summit with Bournemouth just nine points behind as the season prepares to reach the halfway stage.

Croker, who has presided over five wins in Lions’ past seven games, told the Daily Echo: “We carried on from where we had left off against Barnstaple. We played at an intensity which shocked Brixham.

“They arrived as the form team and the dominant team but ran into a brick wall.

“Every time they tried to get any sort of flow going, we were able to disrupt them. Our backs defended heroically and were absolutely sensational and the forwards played at a tempo they couldn’t live with.

“Brixham were incredibly gracious afterwards and said they hadn’t come up against a performance like that for some time so we were really pleased.”

Grant Hancox’s early penalty drew first blood for the hosts before Luke Chandler’s try gave them an 8-0 lead at the interval.

Bournemouth stood firm after Hennings had been sin binned and Ben Stewart’s try, converted by Hancox, completed the scoring.

“All 18 players did a really good job,” said Croker. “Captain Joe Rees, Jack Hennings on his 100th start and Scott Chislett were the stand-out players.

“Jack has been a big force for the club for a number of years. He played a good standard at Henley and came back.

“He picked up a couple of injuries which kept him out for some considerable time but, over the past two years, he has probably been one of our most consistent performers.

“He is a bit of a talisman. He is a big guy who carries the ball hard and gets through a lot of work. The other players feed off that.

“He picked up a yellow card but it was a team offence. We had given away a number of penalties consecutively and the referee had warned us that the next one in our strike zone would result in a yellow card.

“Jack got a little bit greedy and went early but it was a team penalty rather than anything too mischievous.

“The league is very tight. If we could string together a couple of wins then it would certainly put us in a good place.”

Lions: Sutherland, Stewart, Hancox, Chandler, Roberts, Chislett, Hardcastle, Tarrant, Allman, Firetto, Treloar, Warwick, Hennings, Yeats, Rees. Subs: Bailey, Osborne, Veneroso.