BOURNEMOUTH coach Jon Sanchez lamented "too many unforced errors" as his side fell to their latest National Two South defeat, writes Adam Hunter.

Rock-bottom Lions slumped to a sixth loss of the season, this time going down 41-17 at Barnes.

Expectations had been high at Bournemouth ahead of Saturday’s clash with the fellow strugglers. The London club were coming off a run of five straight defeats, in which they had conceded an average of 30 points per game.

But Barnes raced into an early lead and never looked back.

“We had a mountain to climb after 30 minutes,” said Sanchez.

“We played a lot better second half, but that is the story so far this season – not playing for 80 minutes.

"Too many unforced errors."

The weather at the riverside Barn Elms ground was horrendous, with rain and wind threatening to defeat any chance of flowing, running rugby.

Yet after just four minutes, the home side made their mark as number eight Alexander Hind crossed for the first of what became his hat-trick. The power and direct running was too much for the Lions defence, and Hind went over for his second two minutes later, with Josh Hammett landing the conversion for 15-0.

A response of sorts came in the form of a Grant Hancox penalty, but the Barnes back-row continued to terrorise the visitors’ defence, with blind-side Johan van der Poel scoring his side’s third on 11 minutes.

Two further tries took the lead to 33-3 before Bournemouth youngster, fly-half Danny Kirkpatrick, intercepted and scored on the break. And prop Luca Firetto made it two in as many weeks when the forwards bundled him over from close range.

Still, 36-17 at half-time left Lions with a tough task.

The conditions took their toll in the second half as the ground gave way. Hind rounded off his hat-trick with another powerful driving effort after intercepting a wayward kick on 64 minutes to take the score to 41-17, where it remained.

Bournemouth must now regroup ahead of Saturday, when they host Dings Crusaders (2pm).