On Wednesday 1st February Hinckley Staghounds travelled to Syston to face the current 2nd XV County Champions in the 1st round of this years competition. Several late arrivals among the Hinckley contingent led to a disjointed warm-up and a slightly later kick off time than advertised.

Hinckley started brightly, but an early error put them under intense pressure. A long return kick by Syston full-back Ian Smith was adjudged to have been taken back over the try line by Dylan Weddle, giving Syston the feed at a 5 metre scrum. The Stags scrum came to the rescue and showed the healthy crowd of spectators a sign of what was to come.

Hinckley dominated possession for the next 15 minutes and put several phases of possession together with some excellent offloads. However, the scores remained level as Josh Leonard pulled a straight forward penalty kick wide and the Stags were unable to make their dominance count. Finally, from a Weddle tap penalty, George Marsden drove over the line to open our account for the evening. Leonard added the extras for a 7-0 lead. A mistake directly from the kick-off undid all this hard work and immediately put Hinckley back under pressure close to their own line. Some strong defence kept Syston at bay, but, after giving away a series of penalties, Syston made their pressure pay to score a deserved try of their own. The conversion was missed and the half-time score was 7-5 in Hinckley’s favour.
Disaster struck within minutes of the second half kicking off when hooker Dom Ames was sent off for a high tackle. This forced a reshuffle with Alfie Whittingham leaving the field, allowing us to bring fans favourite Craig Bresland into the front row. Bresland had an immediate effect, combining with fellow front rowers Ricky Moran and Ewan Bartlett to push Syston off their own ball, much to the travelling crowd’s delight. This scrum dominance continued for the remainder of the game and when Hinckley were awarded a scrum 5 metres out from the Syston line, the writing was on the wall. The Stags pack dismantled the opposition scrum and, when Michael Parker’s footwork let him down, Weddle was on hand to pick up and score from close range. Leonard added the extras and the Stags now led 14-5. Leonard added a well struck penalty to extend this lead, but Syston hit back and made the most of their extra man in the backs. Twice they exploited the extra space out wide, one a fine individual effort from their replacement three-quarter. Fortunately for Hinckley, both conversions were missed and they still led by the narrowest of margins, 17-15.

With 10 minutes remaining, Hinckley struck a killer blow when Weddle’s long pass found Leonard in space on the left flank to score. He missed the conversion, but there was now breathing space between the teams. A further spell of pressure close to the Syston line led to captain Moran driving over the line for his first try of the season. Leonard added the extras to leave the score at Hinckley 29 Syston 15, and this is how it remained until full time.

We now face Lutterworth in the semi-finals, with the possibility of playing Market Harborough or Vipers in the final.

This was probably one of our best performances of the season despite playing 40 minutes with only 14 men on the field. The whole squad showed great character to overcome this setback and at times looked stronger with this disadvantage. It’s difficult to pick out individuals, but second row Adam Jordan had his best game for the Stags. However, the man of the match award has to go to flanker Charlie Hurst. As an ex-Syston player, he certainly had a point to prove, but he rose to the occasion and was everywhere, slowing down and turning over Syston ball.