The much awaited showdown came to fruition as leaders Hinckley entertained second placed Old Halesonians at both 1st and 2nd XV level. Both games were top of the table clashes in their respective leagues.
Personnel and positional changes were clearly evident in the Hinckley 1st XV line up with captain Alex Salt and Ryan Oakes falling prey to injury and Matt Fearn still away. Rich Harris started at full back with Mitch Culpin moving to inside centre while Huw Marsden moved to No8 with Tom Sanderson at lock. Liam Warren came into the front row as Tom Hilyer, Sam Massarella and Ed Dunn made up the bench. Hinckley kicked off up the slope with a brisk breeze at their backs on a bright and cold afternoon.

From the word go Hales threw the kitchen sink at the home side, no doubt a reaction to last weeks disappointment of losing narrowly at home to Bromsgove. Their counter rucking and ability to move the ball wide clearly affected the normally confident home side. Hales line speed in defence was very effective in stemming any Hinckley attacks, but a tactic very much on the edge had the referee deemed to look over his shoulder at scrum and ruck time. The all action style from the opposition looked good, but strangely they failed to use their superior possession to change pressure into points and very rarely got out of their own half to threaten. The Hinckley defensive patterns had done their job. Had Hales full back Chris Hooper, however, converted two very kickable penalties the story might have been different!
Both Hinckley’s scrummage and line out creaked but they did steal a number of the visitors line outs courtesy of Ed Dunn, on early doors to replace the injured Tom Sanderson. Mark Lord converted a penalty to open the scoring and take the home side to half time leading by a slender 3 points to nil. Perhaps more concerning was the high tackle on Sam Greasley and the facial rearrangement of Tom Morris both deemed accidental by the referee and neither worthy of at least a yellow card.

Hales came out equally bullish for the second half, but were immediately rocked back on their heels as Hinckley attacked down the right with forwards and backs combining to put the powerful Luke Coltman over the line wide out. Lord saw his conversion attempt bounce out after hitting the cross bar. Hooper missed his third penalty attempt while Callum Dacey gathered a loose Hales clearance and skipped through their defence linking with Mitch Lamb and Lord to let Greasley loose to scatter defenders at will powering over for a fine try. Lord added the extras, Sam Massarella entered the game and the home side lead 15-3 on the hour.
Hopper missed his fourth penalty attempt hitting a post and then the visitors threw caution to the wind and attacked with venom. To be fair it had been coming for some time as Hales were using their big carriers to good effect striking both around the corner and from deep. Fly half Oli Rayner finished off a fine move by touching down wide on the right. Hooper found his kicking boots at last and added his most difficult kick of the afternoon to narrow the gap to 15-10.
However, Hinckley immediately came back and from another loose Hales clearance kick Hilyer elected to chip and chase and won the race for the touchdown. Lord’s conversion was short, but the home side lead 20-10 with 8 minutes left. Hilyer was yellow carded for offside while the visitors put together a rolling maul deemed to have been brought down by Ben Avent who joined his colleague in the bin. The resultant converted penalty try moved the score onto 20 -17 and the home side, not for the first time this season, defending their lead strongly with only 13 men on the field. They held out and took the spoils as did the Staghounds who beat their Old Hales counterparts 33 -17.

A close and exciting edge of the seat game ebbing and flowing throughout and worthy of the top of the league showdown billing. Hinckley will be disappointed with the overall level of performance as they weren’t at their collective best and missed their key absentees.
However, it was enough on the day to beat their closest challengers. I am sure Old Hales will be determined to undermine Hinckley when they visit Wassell Grove Lane in March.

In the meantime Hinckley have opened up a ten point lead at the top of N3M and visit Old Northamptonians next week (2.15 ko) who surprisingly beat Bromsgrove away at Finstall Park.

This Topsy Turvy league goes on……….