BRACKNELL RFC slumped to a third straight South West Premier defeat as they went down 47-17 at table-topping Bournemouth on Saturday.

The home side set their stall out early on with converted tries from No. 8 Jack Rees and scrum-half Jack Hennings creating a 14-point lead, the Lily Hill men not helped by losing Rhys Verley to the sin-bin early on.

Bracknell responded, however, and with Bournemouth now down to 14 men following a yellow card to loose-head prop Michael Davies, Ian Burch created space for Vic Hardwicke to make his way over the line before converting his own try.

Trailing 14-7 at the interval, the visitors suffered a setback early in the second half as Tom Napier crossed for a converted try, and it could have been worse for Bracknell when Grant Hancox went over, only for his effort to be chalked off for putting a foot on the dead-ball line.

That proved to be a temporary respite for the away side, though, and Bournemouth sealed their try bonus-point on 50 minutes when wing Dan Stewart dotted down.

Leading 26-7, two further scores around the hour mark through Ali Bennett and Sam Hardcastle put the game to bed, Hancox converting both to extend the lead to 40-7.

Bracknell battled bravely and gained some reward when a lovely floated pass from Bradley Waters found Burch to go over in the corner, Hardwicke landing an excellent conversion, although Karim Lynch replied with the hosts seventh try shortly after.

It was the away side who had the final word, albeit a consolation, as Simon Bayliss went over late on. The damage had already been done, however.

Defeat leaves Bracknell 10th in the table, although there are now just two points separating them from second-bottom Newton Abbot.

Bracknell face a key game at home to the side one point above them in the table, Weston-super-Mare, this coming Saturday (2.15pm).