Front Row: Nuneaton edge out Hinckley in this local derby.

Hoppa had a trawl around the clubs in the Midlands and stumbled over this report. Thanks to Chris Campbell and all at Hinckley Rugby Club for the post and photo. With thanks also to our friends at Pitchero.

Poor first half performance leaves too much to do

By Chris Campbell | Sunday 28th October 2012

A poor first half performance meant that Hinckley had to settle for only a bonus point in their local derby with Nuneaton on Saturday.

Playing with a strong wind at their back, the home side conceded 3 tries to leave them trailing having to play against the elements, and in the end, despite a well worked come back, the win was out of reach.

Josh Smith opened the scoring with a 5th minute penalty which was immediately cancelled out with a successful kick from the visitors. Then, from the resulting restart Hinckley managed to turn the ball over, however a pass from the resulting ruck went between the Hinckley players leaving a loose ball which was picked up by Elliot Brown who ran 70 metres to score a converted try.

Things got worse 5 minutes later, with a 2nd try coming as Hinckley fell off tackles, and when the visitors ran in their third score after just 24 minutes to take the score to 20 - 3, it looked like it could be a very long afternoon for the home side.

Following this Hinckley ralled well however. Firstly on 30 minutes Smith continued his strong kicking form with a second penalty, and then with Nuneaton down the 14, the Hinckley pack drove a lineout over the line, with Tom Ball coming up with the ball, giving him his first try for the club.

At 20 - 11 at half time, the odds were strongly with Nuneaton, and the game looked close to beyond doubt when Nat Aston got a bonus point try for the visitors to extend their lead to 27 - 11, just 5 minutes after the break.
Hinckley however continued to fight and with an increasing amount of possession, and the opposition tiring, the game started to open up. This lead to two tries for Devon Constant, his 14th and 15th of the season. Josh Smith converted both of the scores to leave the score at 25 - 27 with 8 minutes to go.

Unfortunately however, another opportunity didnt present itself, and Hinckley had to be content with just 1 point from yet another game they could, and possibly should have won.

Next week Hinckley travel to Staffordshire, taking on Longton. Kick off time is still to be confirmed.
Hinckley: Smith, Hastie, Buckley, Harris, Constant; Culpin, McFedries; Cunningham (c), Ball, Peck, Salt, Marshall, Morfill, Horwood, Fearn. Reps: Macqueen, Barrett, Brocken