Plenty of effort for no reward

Competitive show reaps little reward on travels

THIS is best described as a very frustrating way to end 2016 as Hinckley once again demonstrated how competitive they can be against the top sides in the league but were unable to come away with the points, writes Chris Campbell.

Although the game wasn’t lost in the first 15 minutes, Hinckley were facing an uphill task by going 17-0 down, through a combination of handling errors and too many penalty offences.

At this point, it was a struggle to see how the visitors were going to get into the game.

The second 20 minutes was a different story, with Hinckley winning the penalty count, dominating the territory and showing good forward play as well as excellent work out wide.

This led to two tries - the first when a cross-field kick was finished by Conor Buillivant, the second when a maul was finished by Matt Fearn.

Both were converted from wide out by Connor Eastgate.

The second half was more cagey - Sale kicked a penalty with 20 to go, and although the visitors spent a good 10 minutes in and around the home 22, with Sale also receiving a red card for an elbow to the head, Hinckley just couldn’t get over the line.

Then, with the final play and with Jacob Umaga in the sin bin, the home side went over from the final scrum, denying Hinckley any points at all.

The end therefore of an edge of your seat 2016 for Hinckley - 3,076 miles have been travelled seeing a promotion (at the second attempt) and 16 games in a new league.

The next outing will be at home to Wharfedale on January 7.