BOURNEMOUTH coach David Dunn praised his side's "mental toughness" after their impressive 27-15 home league triumph over Oxford Harlequins.

It was a big scalp for the South West Division One Lions to take, particularly as they lost 29-14 at Harlequins on October 27 and the Oxford side had beaten second-placed Chinnor 29-15 two months ago.

The Dorset club edged their way into a 17-0 half time lead despite the encounter being evenly contested at that stage.

Chris Ulu touched down and Bournemouth were also awarded a penalty try, with James Flynn converting both and adding a penalty.

Harlequins hit back hard after the break with tries from Pete Davies and Andy Henley, with Frank Jones adding one conversion and one penalty as his side only trailed 17-15 with 16 minutes to go.

That's when the key moments in the tussle took place, stressed Dunn, whose side have now won six of their 14 league matches this term.

The coach said: "It was 17-15 with the game literally in the balance.

"Then we put in extra mental and physical effort and turned it around with a charge-down try from James Flynn which he converted.

"That was the key moment which gave us a little bit of breathing space."

Dunn, whose side had second row Iain Crombie sin-binned with five minutes left, added: "We then found ourselves on our own line.

"Oxford elected to go for a scrum rather than take a penalty with the aim of pushing our pack over the line.

"It was because we were down to seven forwards at the time.

"But our seven men pushed their eight men all the way back to stave off the danger.

"They were the two key moments, the difference between the two teams."

Flynn added a late penalty to end with an individual tally of 17 points.

It was a superb display by the three-quarter on his 50th league appearance for the club as he slotted over all five kicks he took for the second match in a row.

Flynn also passed the 250-point milestone in all matches - he has lined up 66 times in all competitions.

Dunn said: "It was a huge win for us because it had been a very even first half.

"At that stage we had made the most of our opportunities and when they had the ball we made them work hard to gain any ground.

"Our mental toughness and defensive game was superb.

"Throughout the whole game we worked very hard to keep them out.

"It was a great win because they had beaten a top side in Chinnor."

n Oakmeadians' match at Corsham and Wimborne's home encounter against Trowbridge in Southern Counties South were both cancelled because of waterlogged pitches.

n North Dorset defeated Devizes 17-3 at home with tries from Max Biles, Adam Trevis and Jonathon Hooper.

Sam Kierle slotted over one conversion as the Slaughtergate outfit boosted their promotion hopes.

Bournemouth: Davies, Frost (Bruce 75), Gray, Payne, Flynn, Chislett, Hardcastle, Siaki (Burns 63), Ulu, Manning, Ramsey (Forrest 49), Seward, Hughes, Crombie, Kiely.