Wilcockson the hat-trick hero in Lions victory

ALEX Wilcockson’s hat-trick of tries earned Leicester Lions a deserved victory over high-flying Esher, writes Michael Howkins.

The second-placed visitors, who had won their first three matches, put Lions under pressure early on.

But Esher were left stunned when Wilcockson scored his first try on the wing on 22 minutes.

Sam Morley got Esher back into the game with a penalty seven minutes later, but Lions’ pressure led to Esher’s Adam Bullett being given a yellow card for a technical offence.

Ben Young kicked the penalty to given Lions an 8-3 lead at half-time.

Lions made an exciting start to the second half with a scrum where the ball went out to the backs and Wilcockson went over for his second try of the game.

On 44 minutes, Esher’s forward power allowed their hooker Joseph Vajner to drive his way over for a try, with Morley adding the conversion, to reduce Lions’ lead to 13-10.

Eight minutes later though, Esher kicked the ball to relieve Lions’ pressure, but this was skilfully collected by Wilcockson, who shimmied his way through the visitors’ defence to score his hat-trick try, with Ben Young adding the conversion to take Lions into a 20-10 lead.

Esher soon retaliated with forward pressure which allowed them to work the ball out to Dan Rowland on the wing, who went over in the corner for a try.

Morley then added a penalty for Esher to bring the score back to 20-18.

In the 70th minute, Lions drove down the pitch to put the Esher line under pressure, with hooker Oli Taylor driving over for a pushover try.

Young kicked the conversion to move Lions ahead 27-18.

Morley added a penalty for Esher in the dying moments, but the visitors could not add to their score.

Lions, who were captained by Devon Constant for the first time in a league match, are now eighth in the table.

Head coach Gareth Collins said “Esher are a good side and we knew that they would be testing opposition.

“I was proud of how the lads handled the game and took the game to Esher.

“When we were under pressure there was some excellent defensive tackling to hold the opposition at bay.

“We also produced some splendid attacking play to give us four tries and the bonus point.”

Lions make the trip to Guernsey RFC for their next match on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Hinckley crashed to a 41-7 defeat to Redruth, their third successive home defeat, writes Nick Robinson.

The Hornets were given a lesson in controlled, purposeful rugby by the visitors who, despite a 566-mile round trip, looked fitter, fresher and sharper than the men in black and gold.

Scrum-half Jack Oulton scored Redruth’s first try, converted by Fraser Honey, and the visitors were leading 24-0 just before half-time thanks to other tries from flanker Ben Fox and winger Kyle Bradley.

Hinckley finally got on the scoresheet when a lovely chip over the top by Mitch Lamb in the Redruth 22m was collected by Rory Vowles to score under the post, with Joe Wilson converting.

The try gave Hornets some confidence and the third quarter was their best period, but they could not breach the resolute Redruth defence again.

Shaun Buzza forced his way over to earn Redruth a bonus point try and the visitors broke the 40-point barrier with a converted try by Todd Prisk.

The result leaves Hornets second from bottom but director of rugby Scott Hamilton said: “I’m confident that when we get back to full strength the results will come.”