If this was a sign of things to come, Leicester Road is going to see some exciting rugby this season. Hinckley and their visitors Havant shared 16 tries on an afternoon which the Hinckley coaching staff found a fantastic opportunity to learn what areas of the game are in good order and which still need some fine tuning.

Hinckley were 24-0 down after 11 minutes which did ring some alarm bells but context is king - the directives from the coaching staff were to run everything up the hill in the first half leading to a tap penalty being taken deep inside home territory being turned over when the home side hadn’t quite got into shape and Havant executed the turnover opportunity brilliantly well to score. The third try was similar, in that Hinckley were trying a difficult shape off the edge to what was been attempted before which lead to an intercept, but again has given the team so real life feedback about how best to adapt that to ensure it is effective coming into the league season.

The biggest concern of the opening period was more the lack of competition at the restarts which allowed Havant to comfortably work their way up the field but significant improvement was seen in this area after the break and it is really encouraging to see how quickly the players were able to make in game adaptions, something which is key in a successful team.

As Hinckley later in the half dominated possession they at times looked unstoppable. Firstly it was good to see the maul looking like it would be a threat again and this offered Jack Hewitt the chance to score his first try for the club with fellow new signing Connor Adams added the conversion.

There were then two quick tries before the break leaving the score line at 24-21. The first was initiated by a break from scrum half Jackson Shilcock which lead, two phases later to new captain Rory Vowles stepping his way over, and then on the next 22 entry the veteran centre Mitch Lamb hit a fantastic short line to allow him to walk in unopposed.

The second half started with a very strange looking maul try from the visitors which eventually went over despite having been driven to the far side of the posts from the 5 metre line but a couple of minutes later than try was cancelled out with a smarty read interception from Ali Reed.

A fantastically taken try from Vowles was next on the board when he took a loose kick 65 metres out and cleverly chipped over the top of the oncoming defence to score. His own conversion took the score to 33-31.

A second try for Hewitt from a quick tap penalty meant that Hinckley moved into a 7 point lead but as the benches were rolled significantly, and certain players were taken off to manage their load at this time of the season Havant managed to pull away, with their maul in particular being particularly effective, with 4 tries in the final 20 minutes only being broken up by a debut try from Riley Gilbert, to leave the final score at 43 – 53.

Pre -season preparation continues in two weeks time, away to Old Albanians with a 2pm kick off.

Hinckley: Guilfoyle, Tutt, Lamb, Vowles ©, Read; Adams, Shilcock; Harper, Hewitt, Greening, Weaver, Coulson, Mukarati, Johnson, Kent. Reps: Bartlett, Cowell, Holdaway, Bower, Pointon, Gilbert, Reed.