The visit of Preston Grasshoppers to Leicester Road on Saturday saw a stronger looking side on paper taking to the field, in particular with the return of Tom Wheatcroft to the side following a couple of weeks missing with injury. Joe Glover was also back at scrum half whilst Ben Marshall also returned to the starting line up along with Jack Dickinson in a rebalanced back row.

The early stages saw the visitors give away a number of penalties, two of which were converted by Joe Wilson, although Preston scored what would turn out to be their only points of the day in the middle of these from a well constructed driving maul. Throughout the first 20 minutes the Lancashire outfit looked to use their large pack to make inroads in the Hinckley side but the tackling was much improved on recent weeks and Hinckley were able to force errors and through some clever Wilson kicking, were able to pin Preston back in their own half. This pressure eventually lead to short range try to Glover, after a number of phases on the visitors line.

This was soon after followed by a try from Luke Coltman, very typically from the back of the maul where he expertly controlled the ball and his body position to have a simple finish for a man of his experience, and before half time the game was close to out of sight, with Callum Dacey going over in the left hand corner for his first try since his hat-trick against Peterborough Lions back in the second game of the season. Two of the tries were converted by Wilson for a 25 – 5 half time lead, with the pressure on Preston being increased with two yellow cards giving out to them in the half by the referee.

The game was then over as a contest very early in the second half, when a surprised looking Wheatcroft went through a gap straight in front of him, before running past the full back from 35 metres with the Preston players seeming unwilling to make a tackle.

With the game over as a contest, the intensity certainly dropped out of the game, but Hinckley continued to push on. There was a welcome return to the try scoring charts for Jimmy Martin after his summer in New Zealand having come off the bench early in the second half, with Jack Dickinson and Glover again also contributing to a final total of 49.

Next week Hinckley travel to Macclesfield – a very important away fixture having not picked up a single league point in an away fixture since the 29th September