Good day for wingers

South entertained local rivals Hinckley in the first home game of the new season at Welford Road.
Still smarting from the nightmare on Broad Street several selection changes were made by the South coaching team. Danny Graney moved to 10 in place of the unavailable Mark Lord, with Dave Weston coming in at 15. Stu Bale came in at Lock, Ed Hopkins at prop, with Simon Johnson restored at 7. The bench was made up of Jack Owens, Lee Miller and Gas Nicholson.

South scored first with a fine try with Harry Owens, Connor Smith and Dave Weston combining to put speedster Gareth Kerr at the left hand corner. Ricky Aley was unable to add the extras. Former South player Joe Glover immediately had a penalty attempt for Hinckley, but also pulled it wide.
Another bout of quick hands from the South midfield backs enabled Kerr to add his second try, converted by Aley to move the home side into a 12-0 lead after the first quarter and putting the South faithful into a positive mood. Kerr then should have been in a position to score his third try, but Weston’s approach work failed to exploit an obvious two on one situation.
Danny Graney was then yellow carded for a marginal late tackle and Hinckley took advantage with a well worked try by former South favourite Kris McFedries playing on the wing. Glover’s conversion attempt went wide.
South replied with Aley knocking over a penalty after the visitors were caught offside. South were dealt a blow with Connor Smith having to leave the field with a hamstring injury being replaced by Gas Nicholson. McFedries added Hinckley’s second try converted by Glover. A Devon Constant strong run to the line with another Glover conversion took the visitors into a 15-19 lead at the interval.

Glover extended Hinckley’s lead to 15-22 before a barging run and touchdown from South’s Lee Robinson converted by Aley tied the score at 22 points apiece.
A botched kick off receive and some ineffective first up tackling from South, enabled Constant to score Hinckley’s forth and bonus point gaining try with Glover adding the conversion.
South came back and were in the ascendancy and camped in the visitors red zone. A series of dynamic scrummages led to Hinckley’s Ben Marshall being yellowcarded and South’s powerful scrummaging resulted in a penalty try, routinely converted by Aley. The score was tied at 29-29 with minutes to go.
South again failed to deal with the Hinckley kick off, conceded a penalty and Glover converted to gain the lead back for the visitors.
Hinckley hung on to take the game and heartbreak for South.

Overall a fine comeback after the Broad Street debacle and another second half victory, but ultimately South are still searching for their first victory of the season. A try scoring bonus point and another bonus point for losing by less than seven points is some consolation for South.

A tough trip to Longton next week, not a happy hunting ground in the past, for South.

Squad: Weston, Robinson, Smith (Nicolson), Owens H, Kerr, Graney, Aley, Bale C, Johnson, McLaurin (Miller), Bale S, Ward, Hopkins (Owens J), Coltman ©, Stone.

Men of the Match: Ricky Aley, Simon Johnson and Harry Owens.