Personnel and positional changes were afoot as Hinckley entertained Old Northamptonians at Leicester Road with only four games left of the N3M league season. In came Luke Coltman, Ryan Oakes, Alex Salt and Tom Sanderson while Callum Dacey moved to the left wing with Josh Smith at full back. Mark Deaville, Ewan Bartlett and Sam Driver made up the bench.

A rousing minutes applause for ex ONs player 20 year old Zac Forskitt, who tragically passed away earlier in the week, brightened a dull overcast afternoon as ONs kicked off down the slope, but against the breeze.
Hinckley were quickly into their stride dominating the set piece confrontations and winning quality ball to take the attack to the visitors. Although Mitch Culpin opened the scoring with Joe Glover converting as early as the fifth minute the home side were struck by a bout of “teflonitis” as six clear cut chances were squandered by handling mistakes. ONs were reduced to 14 men as their right winger was yellow carded, but it didn’t stop full back Rory Seymour converting a straightforward penalty to narrow the gap to 7-3 after the first quarter.
However, Hinckley were in no mood to concede further as Tom Morris powered over with Glover converting. Alex Salt added the next try as the home pack pushed their opponents back over their own line for a simple touchdown again converted by Glover for a 21-3 home lead.
Salt was yellow carded then Callum Dacey scored the best try of the game as he sped around the ONs defence to touch down under the posts after swift hands from the Hinckley midfield backs. Glover converted and added another converted try on the cusp of half time to take the home side out to a 35-3 interval lead effectively winning the game and with a bonus point in the bag.

Hinckley resumed where they had left off as Culpin added his second try wide on the right, although injuring his hamstring in the process. Glover converted with a super kick and Sam Driver entered the game to replace Culpin. On Salt’s return he added Hinckley’s seventh try although Glover couldn’t add the conversion as the lead moved out to 47-3.
ONs had another player yellow carded for backchat to the referee and unfortunately they fell apart as Ewan Bartlett, Dacey and Ben Marshall added further tries all converted by the excellent Glover.
The referee concluded the game a few minutes early with a final score of 68-3 in Hinckley’s favour.

A welcome addition to the Hinckley points scored column in the quest to keep Scunthorpe at bay in the now two horse race for promotion. “The Mighty Hales” having gone west after losing at Lichfield.
Next game on April 2nd versus Peterborough Lions at Bretton Woods kick off 3pm.

Be there!