Hinckley Staghounds 19 Loughborough 20

After a promising pre-season, including two games against opposition from higher divisions, Hinckley Stags welcomed Loughborough to Leicester Road for our first game in league rugby. A historic moment, but, ultimately, a disappointing afternoon.

Loughborough started the stronger of the two teams, forcing the Stags onto the back foot and using their driving maul effectively. This led to them winning a penalty within kicking distance, which was converted by their full back to take an early 3-0 lead. This stung Hinckley into action and we finally managed to exert some pressure on the Loughborough defence thanks to some direct running. However, several errors allowed Loughborough to turnover possession just when it looked like we were building promising attacks. A good piece of opportunistic work from scrum half Dylan Weddle got the Stags on the scoresheet. From a Loughborough scrum on their own 22m line, Weddle managed to dispossess his opposite number, step the full back and touch down to the right of the posts. Cameron Coates was unsuccessful with the conversion. 5-3

The feeling on the sidelines was that Hinckley would now be able to build on that score and use the pitch conditions in their favour to get some field position. However, the handling errors continued, poor work at the breakdown and getting on the wrong side of the referee allowed Loughborough to take the initiative. From a period of pressure deep in the Hinckley 22, the Loughborough full back took attached of some poor centre field defence and cut a good line to score a try under the posts, which he himself converted to take a 10-5 lead. Hinckley fought back shortly after with their best try of the day. Some strong running from the forwards, with Adam Groocock and Craig Bresland to the fore, got the backs in position to launch an attack and fly half Coates’ wide pass found winder Alex Norris in acres of space. Norris was left with an unopposed run to the line to touch down. Coates converted for a 12-10 lead.

Hinckley struggled for the remainder of the half with Loughborough scoring another converted try shortly before half-time to take a 17-12 lead into the break. The second half started badly with ill- discipline again catching up with us. Captain Ricky Moran was sent to the sin-bin for team infringements, but we managed to withstand a series of defensive scrums close to our own line during this period with 14 men. Loughborough kicked another penalty taking their lead to 8 point with over 30 minutes left to play.

The remainder of the game was not short of effort from the Hinckley team, but it was short of quality. We started to build more phases, but made errors or gave penalties away just as it seemed we would strike. We touched down twice, through Bresland and Coates, with the referee pulling us back for forward passes on both occasions. Just when we thought time was running out, George Marsden popped up running a trademark line to score to the right of the posts. Coates converted to make it 19-20 to Loughborough with 7 minutes on the clock. Game on!

The Stags worked hard form the kick-off to keep possession and gain field position. We now had the ascendency and forced Loughborough deeper into their own half. A series of penalties forced by concerted Hinckley pressure gave Coates the chance to win the game with the last play. However, his penalty from the left of the posts slide across the uprights and was touched down by a Loughborough player to signal the final whistle.

A disappointing, error-strewn performance from the Stags to start the season. Loughborough were good value for their win, but we simply didn’t string enough phases of play together to consistently threaten their defence. Plenty to work on before next week’s home fixture against Market Rasen, where we will again come up against a decent side.

TEAM: Moran, Ames, Bresland, Dowell, Arnold, Johnson, Bower, Groocock, Weddle, Coates, Norris, Spiers, Marsden, C. Nixon, Leonard. Replacements: Sutton, Barnes, S. Hubbard.

Man of the Match: Alex Norris - looked dangerous every time he got the ball and scored a well taken try. It’s good to see him back after a long injury layoff.