A hat trick from captain Alex Salt lead Hinckley to what was in the end a comfortable win over old friends Scunthorpe on Saturday.

Injuries have started to mount up in the squad so changes were made in the backline with Josh Smith and Sam Driver both getting first starts of the season following their long term injuries. In the pack Ben Latimer and Alex Branson came in for only their 2nd and 3rd starts respectively.

Hinckley had the first opportunity at points three minutes in however Mark Lord pushed a penalty attempt wide - a couple of minutes later Steve Johnson kicked one for Scunthorpe to give them the lead.

Hinckley hit back when an excellent break from Smith allowed Scott Hamilton to set up Salt for his first try.

Hinckley then suffered from severe indiscipline unable to stay on the right side of the penalty count - this gave Johnson 4 opportunities to build a lead which Scunthorpe did, by 15 points to 5 just before half time. In this period Alex Crocker (dangerous tackle) and Ben Latimer (team offence)?were both sent to the bin.

A crucial moment then came just before half time - with Hinckley on the front foot it was Scunthorpe who saw the yellow card with Johnson going to bin, and with the final kick of half, Mark Lord added 3 points to leave the score 8-15 at the break.

Now playing with the wind Hinckley came firing out the blocks scoring within 90 seconds of the result, with an excellent team finished well by Driver following a break from Smith. Lord then added the touchline conversion to leave the score at 15-15.

Both sides then looked for the break which would create the ascendency in the game, and it looked like that would go to the visitors when on 50 mins Luke Coltman received a red card for a high tackle. However the opposite happened, and with 14 against 15 Hinckley scored 4 tries to 1 to win the game.

The first of these 4 came with a short range finish from driver after Mitch lamb was help up short, converted by Lord. Then soon after despite playing a forward down the Hinckley pack was still dominant enough to push Scunthorpe back over their own line with Salt touching down.

The final 5 minutes then saw three scores - first Josh Smith scored a well deserved try in the left hand corner, and with the final play, Salt completed his hat trick from close range. Lord converted both. In the middle of those tries was an unconverted try for the visitors.

The 1st XV now have a complete week off, before preparing to face Tynedale at home on the 4th March.