Hinckley travelled to Stoke to take on Longton in round seven of this season’s N3M rugby games after a week off from any action.
Always a tough place to play Hinckley made two changes to the the starting XV with Luke Coltman returning for Sam Masserella while Callum Dacey took his place at full back for the injured Josh Smith. Dylan Weddle joined Tom Sanderson and Ewan Bartlett to make up the bench.

On a dull and rainy afternoon Hinckley kicked off wearing their alternative red and green strip as the home team also play in black and gold. From the onset Hinckley were in the ascendency as a penalty was won immediately, the kick dispatched to the corner, Luke Coltman found his man at the line out and was on hand to touch down from the resultant catch and drive. Mark Lord converted. Minutes later Joe Glover burst away from a maul, beat the cover to go in under the posts for the visitors second try. Lord again added the extras for a 14-0 lead in 11 minutes.
Longton responded with some robust play gaining territory while some basic mistakes began to creep into Hinckley’s play. The home side found a way of disrupting the Hinckley scrummage, got the rub of the green from the referee at the breakdown and scored from a rolling maul which was converted to come back to 14-7. Hinckley stole a number of the Longton line outs and broke out of defence well, but didn’t achieve the usual dominance at the scrummage. Having said that Glover sniped from the base of an attacking scrum, probably against the run of play, was stopped short but offloaded to the supporting Lord who dotted down under the posts for Hinckley’s third try. He added the routine conversion for a 21-7 scoreline at half time.

Longton chose to go in during the interval while Hinckley stayed out on the pitch to plan for the second half and the sun came out! That was as bright as it was going to get as the second period was a dire affair with no score for either side although Hinckley took the yellow card contest by three to one.
Coltman and Longton’s Joel Booth were the first to go after a bout of handbags which distracted the referee from watching the real action as Matt Fearn got over the Longton line to score what should have been Hinckley’s bonus point try. By that time, however, the referee had lost control and unfortunately it wasn’t Hinckley that benefitted. The visitors had to rely on some deep attacks from defence with Fearn and Callum Dacey to the fore in order to gain any territory while Longton could do no wrong in the eyes of the official. Harsh yellow cards for Lord and Ben Avent put the visitors under considerable pressure, but they held out with thirteen men to repulse anything the home side had to offer in attack.

A full 10 minutes collective Hinckley inquest took place on the pitch after the game emphasising the disappointment felt by both players and coaches even though a win is a win. A free Saturday last week hasn't helped Hinckley’s continuity and one next week won’t help either - something about a World Cup final.
A tough November programme versus Newport, Old Hales, Nuneaton and ON’s will surely go someway to determine the outcome of the season. A season that Hinckley are determined to go one better than the last - todays performance was an ugly blip which needs exorcising - roll on the next game.

It was probably the worst second half 0-0 this reporter can remember - not since Syston and Mansfield played out a 0-0 draw over a full 40 minutes on a snowy January day in the late 70's. I was playing that day along with a certain Mr Coltman senior and I’m certainly glad I was only an observer today as the Hinckley faithful too felt the collective frustration for all the Hinckley players on the final whistle.

Next game versus Newport at Leicester Road on November 7th with a 2.15pm kick off.