HEAD coach Will Croker insisted Bournemouth had reaped the rewards of building from within following their thrilling 35-19 win at Brixham.

Missing key players in Ben Allman, Joe Rees and Luca Firetto for the National Three South West clash, Lions handed debuts to fly-half Robbie Boyd and openside flanker Ben Flett, while second-row James Fisher made his first-team bow from the bench.

The young trio were joined in the squad by a string of players who had worked their way through the ranks at Chapel Gate and Croker felt the "freshness" in his team had paid dividends.

He told the Daily Echo: "If you run through our team on Saturday, Pat Fraser and Mike Treloar played third-team rugby last year, Charlie Levey has played in the seconds all season until the past few games, and there were also the debutants.

"Sammy Veneroso, who has been a second-team stalwart for years, has this season come into the first team and made the shirt his own.

"Those players brought a real freshness and enthusiasm which you don't see that often, certainly not at big clubs, who are signing experience and rugby knowhow.

"Sometimes it's just the enthusiasm and the willingness to go that extra mile which stands us up against them.

"We've done the double over Brixham this year and there won't be many teams that do that.

"You travel there with hope but not necessarily as much expectation as you would at other places, but there was a unity about us on Saturday."

Arguably the game's key moment arrived midway through the first half, when Brixham's Todd Lowry was red-carded for a tip tackle on Alan Manning.

And Croker felt the home side could have had no complaints at the decision of the referee, who also yellow-carded Levey in the aftermath.

He said: "The rules of the game have changed and in times gone by it would have been a good dump tackle.

"If he had dropped him, it would have been just a yellow card but he drove him into the ground and could have really hurt him, so it was the right decision.

"Even their captain accepted it at the time."

At that point, Bournemouth were 10-0 up thanks to a breakaway try from Sam Hardcastle and a conversion and penalty from Grant Hancox.

A further penalty from Hancox extended the lead before a converted Russ Morris try allowed Brixham to reduce to 13-7 the deficit at half-time.

Following the restart, Hancox added three more points with his boot, only for Trae Gosling to cross the whitewash for a score converted by Ed Barnes.

Just two points in front, Lions were given fresh impetus when Wyn Roberts intercepted and ran virtually the length of the pitch to touch down. Hancox added the extras.

Jordan Green replied for Brixham to make it 23-19 but with the hosts down to 13 men, two tries in the final two minutes from Jack Hennings and Hardcastle – the first of which was converted by Hancox – wrapped up Bournemouth's win.

Lions: Giunta, Fraser, Tarrant, Levey, Soden, Hennings, Flett, Manning, Hardcastle, Boyd, Roberts, Chislett, Hancox, Chandler, Veneroso. Replacements: Fisher, Snell, Treloar.