Hinckley entertained close local rivals Nuneaton at Leicester Road in a make or break league game. Nuneaton had to win to keep in play off contention while Hinckley had to win to keep Peterborough Lions at bay. Probably the most important game of the season for both clubs.

A strong blustery wind greeted both teams as Hinckley received the kick off playing up the hill and against the conditions. To be honest both sides were evenly matched initially with plenty of attacking and sound defence confined, however, to the middle area of the pitch - a sort of cancelling each other out affair. Hinckley were beginning to make inroads in the tight situations with their forwards dominating both maul and scrummage. It was, therefore, no surprise when the home side took the lead as No 8 Alex Salt controlled a driven scrummage to touch down. Place kicking was always going to be difficult against the wind as Mark Lord’s conversion attempt was held up. Nuneaton immediately replied with a Joe Wilson penalty goal to take the score to 5-3 in Hinckley’s favour.
The midfield arm wrestle continue unabated, until a series of penalties kicked for the corner by Lord resulted in a Hinckley catch and drive for try number two with Luke Coltman touching down.
Lord’s conversion went the way of the first, but the home side were now cruising and in control at 10-3.
Hinckley then shot themselves in the foot as Salt was yellow carded for retaliation after being clearly held back after a maul. Nuneaton took full advantage to score two forward orientated tries through Llyr Griffiths and Mark Lingard exploiting the numerical mismatch in the home pack. Probably the only times the Hinckley pack has gone backwards all season. Two splendid Wilson conversions took the “Nuns” into a 10-17 lead. That hurt Hinckley as did the extra ten minutes playing time added by the referee as the visitors took the initiative to hold their lead at the interval.

Restored to a full compliment after the break Hinckley looked strangely hesitant and only good defence kept Nuneaton out of the red zone. Rich Harris came on for an injured Josh Smith, as Lord made some booming touch finders to pin the visitors in the bottom corner of the field. Using the conditions well and probing for Nuneaton weaknesses Hinckley scored their third try from another dynamic rolling maul touched down by Jordan Goddard. Lord converted to level the scores at 17-17 and the game was well and truly on.
It was now the visitors turn to shoot themselves in the foot as Alex Norris caught a wayward defensive kick, chipped over the cover, hacked through as the Nuns defence stood and watched. The ball ran just inside the touchline before rebounding off the corner flag into the in goal area and Norris pounced to score Hinckley’s bonus point gaining, but somewhat, bizarre try. Lord was convinced his conversion was good although the touch judges disagreed, however, it took the home side out to a 22-17 lead. Lord got his revenge by converting a penalty goal for a 25-17 scoreline with ten minutes of regulation time left on the clock.
Nuneaton lost Lingard to a yellow card as the visitors grew desperate and threw the ball around to gain ground, but were never able to get into a position to threaten the home line.
The leagues best defence smothered all the best Nuneaton attacks, although they lost Coltman to a supposed high tackle (his Dad disagreed) in the 88th minute (really the 98th minute) of the game.
Hinckley saw out the remaining minutes to continue their quest for a play off place while Nuneaton
left the field understandably dejected as their hopes for promotion were over for another season.

Collective Hinckley were not as together as they have been over the long winning run since Christmas as Nuneaton were probably the best side they have come across in that period. Having said that they showed great character and dominated the second half denying the opposition any quality ball to work with. The home side stifled the "Nuns" dangerous backs and also denied the visitors a losing bonus point for getting within seven points of the Hinckley winning score.

So much to look forward too after Easter and the challenge continues at Old Halesonians and on the last Saturday of the season as Hinckley host Peterborough Lions at Leicester Road.

Lets hope Hinckley can do the business and get into the play off place - All to play for still!

And then there were Two!