Hinckley showed changes from the previous week with Tom Hilyer replacing Dylan Weddle at scrum half, Mark Deaville returning at lock and Ed Dunn moving to open side flanker replacing the injured Ben Avent. Rich Harris joined the bench to accompany Ewan Bartlett and Matt Walker.

The combination of probably Hinckley’s most disappointing collective display of the season and Sutton Coldfield’s “what have we got to lose” attitude bearing in mind the relative league positions - top versus bottom, a very sticky pitch, a strong blustery breeze and some interesting refereeing decisions resulted in a contest not for the purist.

For Hinckley to play below their expected standards and still get a bonus point win is the sign of a good side, however, the home side are still plagued with a long injury list.
Sutton were in the ascendency in the early exchanges. Hinckley looked like the away side with a bus journey in their legs as, after a missed Alex White penalty, the visitors dominated territory to score a try courtesy of ex South Leics lock George Ord playing at No8. White added the conversion to give the leagues bottom side the lead.
Hinckley began to awaken from their slumbers and began to dominate the tight exchanges. Continual pressure resulted in a front row yellow card for the visitors, a number of penalty elected scrummages and a penalty try as the referee eventually rewarded the dominant Hinckley scrum. Mark Lord added the conversion and the game was tied at 7-7.
Josh Smith saw yellow and White converted a penalty to take Sutton out to lead 7-10. Back came Hinckley to steal a number of line outs courtesy of Ed Dunn and do what they do best, keeping it tight and rumbled the Sutton pack back twenty metres eventually over their own line for Steve Harvey to touch down. The wind thwarted Lord in the conversion attempt as the home side retook the lead 12-10.
Further good work from Matt Fearn, Callum Dacey and Sam Driver kept Sutton in their own half for long periods. From another go forward scrummage Tom Hilyer made a sniping break and Mitch Lamb was on hand to take the offload and crash over for Hinckley’s third try. Lord routinely converted for the home side to extend their lead to 19-10. A bout of handbags in frustration at the midfield arm wrestle punctuated the reminder of the half which was bizarrely extended to 55 minutes even though there were very few breaks for injury.

White opened up the scoring in the second half with a long range penalty against the wind to pull Sutton back into contention at 19-13 and true to form Hinckley’s early play was riddled with mistakes and inaccuracies in virtually all aspects of their game. However, Mitch Culpin, Dacey and Driver were running back equally inaccurate clearance kicks from the visitors, one by the latter nearly scoring the bonus point try after a powerful run.
Sutton began to throw the ball around and for a ten minute period had the better of the attacking play, even taking into account the less than ideal handling conditions. However, the leagues meanest defence stood firm again and defence turned into attack as the home side began to assert their presence once again. Ewan Bartlett entered the game to provide fresh legs in the front row, a mass frustration induced brawl mean’t a yellow card to both sides, but Hinckley were camped on the visitors line for the concluding throes of the game. Huw Marsden scored the bonus point gaining try as once again the visitors were splintered and marched back over their own line by the powerful Hinckley pack. Lord added the extras to conclude the scoring with a final score of 26 -13 in the home sides favour.

Hinckley are still ten points clear at the top of the table having won all fourteen league games so far this term. As director of Rugby Paul Walsh pointed out in his programme notes the 1st XV has been unbeaten at home since early October 2014 which is an ideal springboard for furthering the cause to promotion in the spring.

Next game versus Syston in the Leics County Cup at Leicester Road on Saturday January 2nd with presumably a 2pm kick off to allow for any extra time to be played if needed.
Next league game away versus Birmingham and Solihull a week later.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.