Win enough to wrap up 9th position
Hinckley Times Sport: Call 01455 891965 or email hinckleytimes@ trinitymirror.com £1 HINCKLEY secured a 36-24 win against one of the leagues ‘marquee’ teams Stourbridge on Saturday in a free flowing game in front of a big crowd at Leicester Road.
The hosts side were without any representation from Wasps (A League) or Nottingham Rugby (fixture vs the Army) meaning there were a number of opportunities for players who have performed well in the Staghounds this year - Huw and George Marsden, Mark Deaville and Dylan Weddle while Oscar Harper, at just 18 years and five days, covered loose head on the bench, having completed his first senior scrummaging session on Tuesday evening.
Hinckley were first on the board with Joe Wilson kicking the first of four penalties after three minutes. This was soon followed up by a first try for the visitors with a first phase try from a scrum, which was converted.
Following this the two kickers exchanged penalties to leave the score at 6-10 a quarter of the way through.
For the rest of the half the home side were dominant, with poor execution letting them down - five try scoring oppor- tunities 10 meters from the Stourbridge line were missed before Alex Salt scored his 14th try of the season on 32 minutes. Wilson added the conversion. He then converted his own try on the stroke of half time to give Hinckley a 20-10 lead at the break.
Stourbridge scored first after the break to bring the score back to 20-17, but on 53 minutes some excellent handing work from David Peck put Wilson into space and he set up Scott Hamilton for a try on the left hand corner.
Wilson then extended the lead with another penalty but the gap was cut back to three when Stour- bridge scored again soon after.
On 70 minutes however came the decisive moment - captain Salt turned down a comfortable kick at goal to go for the corner and from the resulting maul Luke Coltman scored his second in two weeks to give the bonus point. On the whistle Wilson then added three more points.
With two games to go Hinckley are now guaranteed to finish ninth, with 11 points the gap to South Leicester in eighth and 13 points to Wharfedale in 10th. Issues are also sorted at the top - congratulations to Caldy who won the league yesterday and to Sale who will be in play off against Old Ethamians or Chinnor.
Down the bottom Preston (who inflicted Hinckley’s worst defeat of the season) were relegated, while old rivals Scunthorpe look like they now have a mountain to climb to survive, although they have pulled off a great escape before in National 3 four years ago. Also down there are Sheffield Tigers and Harrogate and Hinckley could still play a role in deciding the final standings as they host Harrogate on the April 29, the final game of the season.
In between that however is a week off for Easter and then Hinckley visit Leicester Lions with a 2pm kick off.