Small margins.....

Hinckley fell to defeat on Saturday in a close local derby against Leicester Lions, with long range penalties from visiting fly half James Grayson (son of England World Cup winner Paul) the difference.

Luke Coltman, Ben Avent and Callum Dacey all returned to the starting lineup, as did Connor Eastgate. Eastgate was due to start at Stourbridge last week but a change had to made at 10.30am due to him stepping up to the Wasps bench in the Aviva Premiership game against Worcester, due to Danny Cipriani picking up an injury in the captains run. This wasn't mentioned in last weeks report as at the time of writing, the change had not been announced by Wasps!

Lions had the early pressure which lead to an early shot at goal for Grayson which he missed. The game then struggled to settle down with a number of errors including a lot of charged down kicks, however it was Lions who came out ahead, with two Grayson penalties leaving the score at 6-0.

Eastgate halved the deficit with a penalty of his own, before Hinckleys only try of the game came on 25 minutes. The Hinckley scrum managed to nick one against the head, and Alex Salt picked and drew the last man to give Joe Glover the easiest of finishes. 8-6 is how the score remained at half time.

Hinckley extended their lead soon after the break with a second Eastgate penalty, which was soon equalised by Grayson. Then with 10 minutes to go the game changing moment, when Ian Smith scored on the right hand side to make the score 14-11 to the visitors.

Eastgate kicked a third penalty soon after to level the game up, but straight from the kick off Hinckley gave away a penalty from offside, with Grayson kicked to win the game for Lions.

Next week, Hinckley travel to Manchester to finish 2016 away to Sale FC