There can be little doubt that this victory, Hornets second in succession on the road, was their best of the season to date. Few pundits would have given Hinckley much hope against a team who had previously lost only once at home in the last year, and that against high-flying Cambourne. And so, it was more in hope than expectation that the traveling support made their way south to Bristol in what could only be described as ‘extreme’ weather conditions.

In the end, hope won through as Hinckley put in a disciplined, focussed and highly effective performance in conditions where one would have expected an error count much higher the actuality. The margin of victory was narrow but the Hornets were much the better side on the day and but for a very fortunate late try for the Reds and a few errors at crucial moments by Hinckley that margin could have been much wider.
The victory only lifted Hinckley one place in the league (they now sit in 11th position on 26 points having leapfrogged Exeter Uni who did not play on Saturday) but the psychological boost they will have taken from this game will be immensely more valuable than the points secured. There were a number of outstanding individual contributions (Billy Pasco had his best game to date in black and amber and Sam Greening was dominant in the scrum all afternoon) but the most pleasing aspect from the perspective of a Hinckley supporter was that they played as a team, and a team who are beginning to believe in themselves.

DOR Chris Campbell was quietly content with both the performance and the result. ‘It was a very unspectacular game but one in which, we managed to show that we can play the tough, gritty game which is needed sometimes after really not delivering that against Redruth.’

‘I felt our ball retention in the first half was excellent allowing us to control the game playing against the wind and up the hill and we made a point of taking points in the second half when they came on offer. To be honest, we were unfortunate to be going into the last couple of minutes with the game still in the balance after an extremely fortunate try for Old Reds which we could do very little about, but the win has given us a great lift going into our two home Xmas fixtures.’

In retrospect the game was won in the first half. Reds kicked off down the slope and, with a near gale force wind behind them, the expectation was that they would build a substantial lead in the first half, and look to hold out for the second period when Hinckley would have the better of the conditions. Hornets’ game plan though was to simply deny Reds possession on the basis that, without the ball, you cannot score.

It worked a treat to the extent that it was Hinckley who put the first points on the board. Having spent much of the first ten minutes inside their own 22m with ball in hand, a break from Ben Pointon off the back of a scrum saw Riley Gilbert run deep into the Reds half. After a series of pick and drives, Matt Guilfoyle saw a gap in the defensive line, sold a dummy and sneaked through for the try to put Hinckley in front. Ali Reed converted and the home support were stunned into silence.

The rest of the half followed much the same pattern with Reds having all the territory but little of the ball. When Reds did have possession a combination of sterling defence, handling errors, and Hinckley dominance in the scrum meant that the Hornets kept their noses in front.

They couldn’t entirely negate the Reds’ advantage though and Reds did pull a score back after 25 minutes when Hinckley were caught offside in front of their own posts. Reds elected to run the ball but failed to force their way over for the try until the ball was released wide and Harrison Murphy squeezed over in the corner with Jack Gapper putting over an excellent conversion to level the scores.

That ended the scoring for the first period but it was Hornets who finished the stronger and should perhaps have sneaked another try at the death when they won a penalty line-out 10m out after the pack had won a scrum against the head on the Reds’ 22m. The ball through was kicked dead to end half.

Hinckley were back in front, however, within two minutes of the restart when Reed put over a penalty after Reds had been penalised at a scrum in from of their posts.

But Reds hit back almost immediately with their second try from a line-out 30m from the Hinckley line. Reds took the chance well but for the first time in the game Hinckley’s defence was hardly out of the top drawer.

Reid added a second penalty five minutes later to put Hornets back in front and five minutes later Hinckley added their second try. Hornets had secured a penalty line-out 25m from the Reds’ line and the chance looked to have been wasted when the ball was overthrown. The ball was recovered however and Mitch Lamb looked to have forced his way over the line. But neither the referee nor the touch-judge were able to confirm the try and instead Hinckley were awarded a 5m scrum. With Reds down to seven men in the pack, it was a relatively easy task for the Hinckley forwards to drive over for Nigel Mukarati to claim the score.

Another Reed penalty after 67 minutes extended the Hinckley lead to two scores and things seemed to be going Hinckley’s way. But there was still a twist in the tale. First, Jack Ramshaw limped off injured and then yellow cards for Guilfoyle and Oli Bee say Hinckley reduced to 13 men for the last six minutes.

Reds secured a penalty line-out 10m from the Hinckley line and a score looked inevitable. A score did come, but it certainly wasn’t a classic. The ball was sent right from the line-out but a dreadful pass to Reds centre Gethin O’Callaghan (who arguably had been their stand-out player) should have seen the move break down. However, O’Callaghan managed to get a boot to the ball to carry it over the line and then won the foot race to touch down. When Gapper converted to make it a two-point game the last five minutes looked ominous for the 13 Leicester Road men on the field.

But they held on, helped in part by indiscipline from the Reds. With time running out, Hinckley were awarded a scrum on halfway which first became a penalty when Reds disputed the decision and when they persisted the referee sent them back a further 10m to bring the kick within range. It was enough to hand the victory to Hinckley. Reed couldn’t make the score but it didn’t matter as the referee immediately blew for time and the Hinckley celebrations commenced.

Nick Robinson