Hinckley travelled down to Devon on a gorgeous day with the game played in front of an excitable and passionate home crowd and on hard ground and with the temperature hovering around the mid teens, an exciting afternoon looked like it could be in store.

In truth however, it was a dire game of rugby, with neither side’s performance covering themselves in any sort of glory.

The afternoon saw only tries – Barnstaple’s came in the first half, with a lineout stolen by Hinckley going loose and the home side reacting quickest to the loose ball in the in goal, and Hinckley’s late in the second half, with a scrum push over being finished by Alex Salt. Both sides converted their tries, with Barnstaple kicking two penalties to Joe Wilson’s 1.

Hinckley showed good attacking intent throughout the game, and the expansion in the attacking game is something to be positive about, however too often the ball went to deck in promising positions, and there will be some interesting analysis to be done over the summer in regards to the risk/reward of turning down kicks at goal to go to the corner. Barnstaple showed great energy, however never realistically looked like creating a try scoring opportunity, although it was energy which allowed them to win the race to the ball for their try.

We move onto next week – with the home local derby against Leicester Lions.