LIONS chief David Dunn analysed his team’s start to the campaign and insisted: “We can more than compete at this level.”

Bournemouth’s 41-29 victory over Chinnor on Saturday made it two wins from three matches since promotion to National Two South this term.

Fly-half Ben Stevenson was again a stand-out performer for Lions behind a dominant home pack at Chapel Gate .

Bournemouth are likely to come in for a stern examination when they visit Redruth in their next outing.

But director of rugby Dunn has been encouraged by his team’s early-season displays in the fourth tier.

Dunn told the Daily Echo: “We targeted 10 points from our first four games as we are taking the season in four-match chunks. We have got nine points already.

“We go to Redruth on Saturday with money in the bank. We can go down there, give a good account of ourselves and we could be ahead of our target. I am absolutely delighted with the start.

“There is a long way to go and we have only played three games. It is not always about the start or the middle but it is about sustaining it throughout the season. It is so far, so good. We are on track at this stage.”

Dunn was delighted with the performance of his forwards in the win against old rivals Chinnor. Hooker Frazer Wilford and new front-row recruit Ben Featherstone both marked powerful efforts by getting on the scoresheet.

Dunn said: “We felt our forwards were out of the game against Worthing in our previous match because it all happened too quickly.

“But on Saturday, we knew our forwards had the chance to win us the game. I was delighted with the performance of the forward pack.

“We got on top up front and set down a marker with a couple of catch-and-drive tries.

“They came back at us, as we would expect Chinnor to do, and they got the ball wide and |were very effective when they did that.

“But every time they scored, we seemed to come back straight at them. The time Ben Featherstone scored his try just took the wind out of their sails and secured our victory.”

Dunn added: “If ever you wanted to see a benchmark for how far we had come since the end of last season, Saturday’s match was it.

“There was one point to choose between the two teams last season and, on Saturday, I thought we were comfortable victors.”