On a damp and overcast day Hinckley travelled to the Derby Road ground home of Loughborough RFC for a preliminary round clash in the Leicestershire County Cup competition. The winners having the privilege of travelling to Belgrave in January for a quarter final clash.
Hinckley put out a strong side and unfortunately for Loughborough they were on top form to record a convincing 96-0 victory.

From the word go it was one way traffic in favour of the visitors showing the gulf between each side’s relative league positions as the hosts struggled. A heavy greasy pitch didn’t stop Hinckley dominating proceedings with some fine running, handling and interplay between backs and forwards.
Alex Salt and Josh Smith scored two tries apiece while Dave Weston, Sam Greasley and Ewan Bartlett (against his old club) added further scores. Mark Lord added four conversions for a half time score of Loughborough 0 Hinckley 43.

Coach Chris Campbell rang the changes both in personnel and positionally as Hinckley added further scores against a home side who never gave up. Tom Morris added three tries, Liam Warren and Mitch Culpin added two tries each while Smith scored his third and Matt Loveday concluded the scoring. Josh Smith taking over the kicking duties also added four conversions.

Highlights were Salt’s big bosh try after a heel against the head, Loveday’s big hit in attack which indirectly lead to Weston’s try and his great hands to put in Smith for his first try.
Lord’s break for Salt’s second try, Culpin’s direct running in the second half while Morris was a strong carrier throughout the game.

We hope that the young Loughborough player who was seriously injured early in the second half actually got to hospital after an unacceptably long wait for an ambulance. We wish him well.

Back to league business next week with a tough trip to Nuneaton with a 2pm kick off.