Win for Hinckley on the road
HINCKLEY begin their county cup defence with a win.
For the third season running Hinckley U16s were looking to reclaim their County Cup Crown and started off the championship away at Syston RFC.
It was a dogged start, with both sides not hanging onto possession very well in the wet, greasy conditions. However, from a strong scrum, Freddie Grewcock, on his return from illness/injury, scythed through Syston’s defence to open proceedings with a try. Lewis Gardner was just wide with the conversion. 0-5 to the away side.
After multiple phases for both sides, Syston kicked upfield and the ball was caught by Shaun Hubbard who stepped his way onwards. A nice offload from Alfie Sansome set up a great attacking move which resulted in Deevey-Ryan getting the ball and powering his way under the posts. Gardner converted this time to make the score 0-12.
The rest of the half was rife with turnovers, penalties and lineouts with neither side able to take advantage.
Hinckley started the second half slightly better with Ben Deacon powering forward, another lovely passing interplay led to Sansome literally smashing his way over the try line by demolishing the fullback into oblivion.
Luke Granger replaced Sam Racklyeft while Jakob Warren replaced Ben Deacon and Ed Burgess moved into the front row and made an immediate impact, making significant yardage, before Bassford trucked it up further upfield. Following a penalty, Hinckley decided to scrum and Sansome carried to the five metre line, earning another penalty. Hinckley took the penalty quickly again and Grewcock stretched over for his second. Hinckley led 22-0.
Rejuvenated, Syston pressed forward, Hinckley defended decently but gave away a penalty for not rolling away. Surprisingly, Syston went for the posts despite being considerably behind and they converted the penalty.
Hinckley did not let this slide and Seb Smith ran a superb line to score his first try of the game to go under the posts. This was converted by Grewcock which extended the score to 3-29.
Hinckley then capitulate on more possession, Deevey-Ryan again proving troublesome for Syston’s defence as he stormed through to score his third. This was swiftly converted, and Hinckley now had a winning lead of 3-36. Syston pressed for what would be a minor consolation.
Last play of the game, the ball was spun wide to their No8 who simply dotted down to give the home side their first and last try of the afternoon.
The score line suggested a compelling thrashing but, it was anything but. Hinckley have serious set-piece issues to address in the meantime and the defence, although better, still requires some patching up.