BROMSGROVE head coach Dan Protherough believes his side must learn how to grind out away wins.

The Boars face a big derby clash on Saturday in only their second game of the season in the National League Division Three when they take on Birmingham and Solihull at Portway.

The Bees, who had been in Rugby Union's’ second tier The Championship in 2010, suffered relegation last term and began kicked off the 2015/16 season with a home loss to Syston.

Bromsgrove started with a fractious 32-31 home win over Sutton Coldfield, where they had three players sin-binned.

Protherough said: “Birmingham and Solihull are a good club and while they were relegated, they scored a lot of points.

“They are obviously out of the habit of winning, so we must go there and make sure that continues.

“One of the things we must do is win these tight away games. If we can do that then we’ll be looking up the table.”

Bromsgrove have seen their squad reshuffled, with James Lloyd-Jones returning to hometown club Kidderminster Carolians.

Jamie Tsang has signed a professional contract to play in Hong Kong, who he is also eligible to represent, while Dave Hughes is still a long-term injury absentee ce.

The club has brought in Droitwich Spa pair Chris Danks and Jamie Shaw, while Aaron Middleton has joined. Liam Marshall from Dudley Kingswinford has also came on board from Dudley Kingswinford.

Protherough added: “Jamie Tsang and James Lloyd-Jones were big players for us this season, so we’re going to miss them.

“Last year, South Leicester got a good start and ran away with the league and there were teams at the bottom who got quickly stranded.

“But this time it’s going to be very close, there are a lot of teams who are very similar in their profiles.”

Bromsgrove’s win over Sutton was marred by ill-discipline but Protherough took the positives.

He said: “We were a bit undisciplined but we didn’t play at our best and still managed to win the game and earn a bonus point.”