So – where do we start with this one.

If a game of National 2 South rugby could be defined as a classic, then this would be it. The lead changed hands 7 times, it was decided with the very last kick of the afternoon. There were 5 tries each, lots of moments to talk about and raw emotion on display from both sides at the end – you can’t ask for much more than that?

Should Hinckley have won – yes. The visitors had the ball inside the Esher 22 with 80 seconds to go and from that point the game should have been killed off, but did both sides feel they deserved to win? Probably – it was that sort of afternoon.

Running towards the club house in the first half, Hinckley were the first on the board – a scrum penalty had lead to lineout inside the 22 and a smart play between Pointon and Wilson created the opportunity for Adam Nunney to score – having not scored in his first 14 games for the club he now has 2 in 2. Wilson kicked the first of 4 conversions.

90 second later the scores were level when a Vowles pass was picked off by Jack Lavin who ran in unopposed, and when more Hinckley ambition lead to an error in midfield, the home side camped themselves in the 22 which ended up with the home side scoring their second try, which they followed up with a penalty for a 15 – 7 lead.

Hinckley then however managed to control the game for a period, which coincided with Luke Coltman coming onto the field for the injured AJ Johnson, with the veteran hooker coming up with 2 tries in 5 minutes – the first game from a short range dart which was expertly given by the referee taking his time to look for a grounded, and the second game when he ran over of the home wingers to score in the right hand corner. One of the tries was converted by Wilson. Esher did however take the lead into the break, with a breakaway try on the half time whistle, meaning they lead 22 – 19.

The first 20 minutes of the second half was a relatively slow burning but it then burst into life with 4 tries in the final twenty minutes. Wilson intercepted to run in from 35 metres to put Hinckley back into the lead, but when Esher scored again soon after to lead 27 – 26, it felt like the game might be starting to slide towards the visitors.

The feeling soon became the exact opposition. Hinckley had a kickable penalty to take the lead, but Alex Salt turned it down to take the scrum, which paid dividends when Rory Vowles scored on the wide outside after numerous resets. There were 6 minutes on the clock when this try was scored and everyone there will remember what happened next, with Esher scoring in the left hand corner with the final play and the home kicker Morley converting from the touch line to win.

Disappointing to lose of course, but one kick doesn’t change what was another hugely improved Hinckley performance, which we hope to build on again as we host Guernsey this weekend.