WILL Croker felt the first quarter of Bournemouth’s 38-24 win over Barnstaple had seen Lions produce some of their best rugby under his charge.

Lions scored three tries in the opening 21 minutes of their first home game of the South West Premier campaign and although Barnstaple fought back, the hosts pulled away in the second half.

The experienced Sam Hardcastle crossed first before getting another via an interception. Summer signing Hamish Renwick added a third and Grant Hancox slotted his third conversion.

The visitors responded with a penalty and a couple of converted tries of their own, leaving the scoreboard finely poised at 21-17 early in the second half.

However, Lions put their foot on the pedal once more and Mike Pope and Adam Higgins went over for tries converted by Hancox, who then added a three-pointer.

Barnstaple managed another converted score but it was too little, too late.

Head coach Croker told the Daily Echo: “We were delighted. We didn’t want to wait for them to come at us as we knew they would make it a really long afternoon for us.

“We had to get into them from the get-go and in the first 20 to 25 minutes, we played some of the best rugby we’ve played since I’ve been in charge.

“The scrum was dominant, the backs were slick and Sam Hardcastle was at his absolute best, bossing the forwards around and scoring tries for fun.

“It looked a really comfy place but Barnstaple aren’t the sort of team who will allow you to run amok for an entire game.

“We perhaps tried to force it a bit and made a few errors, and in trying to win the ball back, we gave away a few penalties.

“All of a sudden, they were kicking to the corners and were getting some really good drives going. In truth, we didn’t defend as well as we could have done and that let them back in it.

“But we rallied and some of our big players came to the party. Mike Pope was man of the match and scored a wonderful try. The way he marshalled our offence was brilliant. He probably made more tackles than we would have liked but he was excellent on the day.

“Adam Higgins proved a real threat and we were really pleased with how we rallied. The upshot was that we started to move away from them in the last section of the game.”

Lions, who were beaten in a promotion play-off by Guernsey last season, are one of three teams in South West Premier with a 100 per cent winning record.

Croker added: “When we got to Guernsey, we felt we were in a really good place and rather than having the off-season lull, we started back earlier than we would normally.

“We have taken that as our base level and tried to add to it. When you add the likes of Joe Tarrant, Mike Pope, Adam Higgins and Hamish Renwick, they are quality players who have a high rugby IQ.

“We tell them the line-out calls and they learn them straight off the bat, whereas guys who come in from other clubs at a lower level may take some time to adapt.

“They have come in and added real quality and when you think we had no Joe Rees, no Adam Davies, no Ali Bennett, no Ben Flett and no Freddie Gleadowe against Barnstaple, they are big-name players.

“Yet we were still able to produce a really strong result.”