And so it all began! 525 days after the trip to Huddersfield a side representing the 1st XV took to the field on Saturday.

I think it would be fair to say it was a difficult week for all in preparation for the fixture. The game was in doubt until the middle of the week due to positive COVID tests and isolations, and as result the planned 2nd XV game had to be cancelled. Despite this everyone did a huge amount of work to ensure that one game could take place safely, an excellent outcome for all particularly the commercial team lead by Ross Cunningham who hosted a dinner for 130 sponsors, and with over 250 people watching the game, it is clear there continues to be a huge appetite for rugby in Hinckley.

In all, Hinckley had 28 players unavailable, of which roughly 20 would have been in contention for 1st team selection, with injuries and holidays adding to the COVID unavailability. This however shows just how strong a place that HRFC is in, with the 3rd XV also running a side out today - not since the good old days of clubs running out 4 or 5 sides every week will so many players have been wanting to represent the club.

The Hinckley team was also disrupted up until kick off with 2 of the replacements who had played in the 3rd team game dropping out due to hospital visits, and the starting team saw the DoR Scott Hamilton back on the field again at the age of 41, whilst returning scrum half Kris McFedries appeared on the right wing making his first appearance for Hinckley since 2014. Josh Leonard, Corey Venus and Joe Lane were all on debut in the back line, whilst Harry Bower appeared in a 1st team back row for the first time. The bench saw young second rows Groocock and Arnold take to the field, whilst Ewan Bartlett returned from a 4 year injury lay off.

The first half of the game certainly could not be described as a pre - season friendly - it was full of intensity and with the noise from the crowd felt like it was a normal league fixture. As was to be expected the Hinckley set piece which was full of experience was dominant against a very young visiting outfit whilst both sides defensive line speeds cancelling out respective attacks. This lead to quite a bit of attacking kicking with Rory Vowles in particular looking to create opportunities and pin the visitors back with his boot.

At the interval the score was 7 all. Alex Salt scored for Hinckley from the base of the scrum with Rory Vowles converting, whilst Loughborough went over for a score with the last play of the half.

The second half was a different picture which was not entirely unexpected. Loughborough were able to bring on close to a whole new team who were extremely athletic as you would expect from a squad involved in the high quality training programme you would expect from such a well regarded university programme, whilst Hinckley did tire and although there is still clearly match conditioning work to do it was exposed more than it would be against other sides, and a late flurry of tries lead to a 40-7 win for the visitors. Although disappointed we won’t get to see Loughborough during the season with them being very respectful opponents and a team we enjoy playing against, it was great to see them in pre-season and wish them all the best in National 2 North.

A number of players will return for Friday nights visit to Bournville although there are still a few areas the team will be focusing on in game related scenarios. Kick off is 7.45pm for anyone able to travel to Birmingham.