Hinckley secured a win against one of the leagues 'marquee' teams on Saturday in a free flowing game in front of a big crowd at Leicester Road.

The Hinckley side were without any representation from Wasps (A League) or Nottingham Rugby (fixture vs the army) meaning there were a number of opportunities for players who have performed well in the Staghounds this year - Huw and George Marsden, Mark Deaville and Dylan Weddle whilst Oscar Harper, at just 18 years and 5 days covered loose head on the bench, having completed his first senior scrummaging session on Tuesday evening.

Hinckley were first on the board with Joe Wilson kicking the 1st of 4 penalties after 3 minutes. This was soon followed up by a first try for the visitors with a first phase try from a scrum, which was converted. Following this the two kickers exchanged penalties to leave the score at 6-10 a quarter of the way through.

Hinckley where then dominant for the rest of the half, with poor execution letting them down - 5 try scoring opportunities 10 meters from the Stourbridge line were missed before Alex Salt scored his 14th try of the season on 32 minutes. Wilson added the conversion. He then converted his own try on the stroke of half time to give Hinckley a 20-10 lead at the break.

Stourbridge scored first half the break to bring the score back to 20-17, but on 53 minutes, some and excellent handing work from David Peck put Wilson into space and he set up Scott Hamilton for a try on the left hand corner.

Wilson then extended the lead with another penalty but the gap was cut back to 3 when Stourbridge scored again soon after.

On 70 minutes however came the decisive moment - captain Salt turned down a comfortable kick at goal to go for the corner and from the resulting maul Luke Coltman scored his second in two weeks to give the bonus point. On the whistle Wilson then added three more points.

With two games to go Hinckley are now guaranteed to finish 9th, with 11 points the gap to South Leicester in 8th and 13 points to Wharfefale in 10th. Issues are also sorted at the top - congratulations to Caldy who won the league yesterday and to Sale who will be in play off against Old Ethamiams or Chinnor.

Down the bottom Preston (who inflicted our worst defeat of the season) were relegated yesterday, whilst our old friends from Scunthorpe look like they now have a mountain to climb to survive, although they have pulled off a great escape before in National 3 4 years ago. Also down their are Sheffield Tigers and Harrogate and we could still play a role in deciding the final standings as we host Harrogate on the 29th, the final game of the season.

In between that however is a week off for Easter and then we visit Leicester Lions on the 22nd with a 2pm kick off.