The First XV entertained South Leicester at Leicester Road in the first of this seasons local derbys. Buoyed by the victory at Scunthorpe the previous week Hinckley looked to consolidate their league position.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be as South dominated proceedings virtually from the word go against a home side who are currently struggling with a plethora of injuries and unavailabilities to key players aka Leicester Tigers.

Hinckley were penned in their own half for most of the first period and trailed to Ricky Aley’s two penalties and a drop goal for South at half time. Rich Harris had converted a penalty to narrow the gap although another straight forward penalty chance was spurned for a kick to the corner which came to nothing.
Hinckley did compete well at scrum time and put together some rolling mauls which tested the visitors defence. Tom Morris, Alex Salt and Matt Fearn were to the fore taking the fight to the opposition.

Hinckley were more direct in the early part of the second period as they drove South back with further dynamic rolling mauls and perhaps should have been rewarded with a try.
Poor decision making and silly basic mistakes hampered Hinckley’s progress and let South off the hook.
Rich Harris put over an impressive long range penalty which, however, was scant reward for the home sides pressure at that time. A home scrummage against the head brought some hope, but a deflection of a South kick through turned a home drop out touchdown into a five metre scrum to South which was probably the turning point in the game
Former Hinckley player Kris McFedries then tormented the home side with a couple of sniping runs that directly set up South tries for Wes Cope and Stu Bale, one converted by Aley who also added a penalty to conclude the scoring.

A trip next week to Birmingham University to take on Bournville.