Hinckley come good in face of rare scare
A FIRST half hat-trick from wing-man Sam Driver plus a late try from centre Mitch Lamb was enough to see Hinckley home against bottom of the table Wharfedale.
Another bonus point win saw the Leicester Road side open up clear water between themselves and the following pack at the half-way point in the season in National 2 North.
This was no stroll in the park, however. Buoyed up by last week’s first home victory of the season against Hornet’s local rivals South Leicester, Dale came to Leicester Road looking to humble the league leaders and very nearly did so.
For the first time this season, the Hinckley pack was bettered and the faithful had to endure the disconcerting spectacle of a Hornets pack going backwards for much of the game.
Director of Rugby, George Chuter, said: “We’re happy with the five points but this is the first time we have struggled up front to contain the opposing pack. We were really fighting for our lives in the last 15 minutes.”
The first try came after 16 minutes when, against the run of play, Sam Driver got on the end of an offload from Tom Wheatcroft and, in a typ- ical bullocking run, broke through the Dale midfield defence to romp over the line.
Joe Glover could not make the conversion - Hinckley 5-0 ahead.
The next try on 30 minutes was more or less a repeat of the first with Driver breaking tackles in midfield to again leave the Dale defence flailing.
Five minutes later, Driver grabbed his third after good work from the Hornet’s pack created space on the outside for the wing-man to finish.
Again, though, Glover could not convert. Hinckley 15-0 up at half time.
The visitors started the second half much the stronger and their relentless forward pressure eventually led to the referee walking under the posts to award a penalty try after 55 minutes when the Hornets pulled down a rolling maul on their own line.
Fly-half Tom Barrett bagged the extras.
Dale continued to pressure with the Hornets pack seemingly unable to respond.
It was no surprise, following another 5m scrum against the Hornets, that scrum half Phil Woodhead dived over to bring Dale within three.
Barrett’s conversion made it 15-14 with 15 minutes to go.
A yellow card for Mark Deauville two minutes later only compounded Hinckley’s problems.
Dale went over shortly afterwards but to the home crowd’s relief, the officials adjudged that the ball had not been grounded.
However, a series of pick and drives from the resultant scrum set up fly-half Barrett to deliver a drop goal which gave Dale the lead, 15-17, with just seven minutes remaining.
This Hinckley side does not lie down, however. With the sensible money now on Dale, a break by Jamie Skerrit allowed Hinckley to break the Dale stranglehold and Mitch Lamb was on hand to finish the move.
Few would have argued about the justice of the situation had Dale held on for a famous victory. Successful sides though have a habit of winning games they could easily have lost and Hinckley march on.