HINCKLEY TURN ON THE HEAT !

On one of coldest days of the season so far Hinckley u13’s took on a well-equipped Market Harborough side.
Hinckley kicked off and pressed Harborough from the off, forcing several errors from the fired-up home team, with Hinckley rucking strong and slowly forcing Harborough back into their own half, but a couple of handling errors by Hinckley gave the home team an opportunity to get the ball wide and break through Hinckley’s defense to take the lead 5-0.
Hinckley looked to equalise from the restart with Hinckley’s forwards making good ground with fully repaired MENSFORTH-GROVE only for Harborough to make an interception and run through to make it 10-0.
Hinckley picked themselves up and with some excellent rucking started to push Harborough back with great runs from HUTTON, ELLERSHAW and MILLER, Hinckley pushed the home team right back into their own 22, finally the hard work paid off with Hinckley’s forwards dominating the scrums, A WHITTINGHAM made great ground and shipped the ball out to L WHITTINGHAM to burst through to put Hinckley on the score sheet 10-5.
Harborough responded well and pressed Hinckley to force through the back line to restore their 10-point advantage 15-5
By now Hinckley were finally defrosting and with some fantastic rucking by Hinckley this was rewarded as HUTTON broke free and shipped to MILLER who through Harborough’s defense and over the line to make it 15-10.
Harborough looked to respond quickly from the re-start and with some quick passing almost made it over the line, only for scrum half WAINDE to make a crunching tackle on the line and stop the charge, Harborough continued to force Hinckley back but the defense held strong.
HALF TIME HARBOROUGH 15 HINCKLEY 10

With the coaches giving a vocal team talk at half time, Hinckley came out for the second half fired up
With Harborough kicking, Hinckley quickly made ground with BARNS and GOODWIN smashing through Harborough and Hinckley rucking with real force A. WHITTINGHAM burst through to equal the scores 15-15
Now on the front foot, Hinckley showed some great passing skills, and finally took the lead with A. WHITTINGHAM 15-20
With Harborough now looking tired Hinckley’s fitness seemed to be taking effect and Hinckley were winning every scrum and ruck with WAINDE and SMITH causing Harborough problems all over the pitch, Hinckley’s only problem now was the ref who seemed to give Harborough all the decisions their way, but Hinckley stood strong and continued to make life hard for Harborough, with great work from UNDERWOOD, and BURTON Hinckley created another great chance and GOODWIN put the ball over to make it 15-25
Harborough used their ref advantage and almost scored but FOUNTAINE tackled brilliantly to stop Harborough getting back in it. with Hinckley still pressing, BURTON found his way through to make it 15- 30 and put Hinckley well on top
Harborough seemed to run out of ideas and were just happy to kick the ball out, only to give Hinckley the ball back in their own 22, Hinckley took full advantage of this with BURTON making it 15-35
Hinckley scrums were brilliant in this second period and the rucking was much better as this had been practiced in training over the last few weeks the hard work was paying off,
With cold hands making handling difficult the new team glove lady Nikki Whittingham was on hand to supply gloves to the lads where needed, and with a ref that was determined to allow play to go way over as Harborough had possession they got a consolation try in the last last last last play.
Final score
MKT HARBOROUGH 20 - 35 HINCKLEY