Due to holidays, injuries and unavailabilities a depleted skegness team travelled to Horncastle for a training fixture.

Due to low numbers from both sides and no front row from Horncastle the game was played 13-a-side with uncontested scrums.

Skegness opened the scoring early well a we returned chip through as ended in a high tackle penalty. The resulting lineout saw Skegness drive forwards before a number of strong forward carries ended in Mason east crashing over, converted by Hummel 0-7.

Next followed 10mins where Skegness kept most of the possession and looked to move the ball well. Unfortunately the ball didn’t stick on the last pass on a few occasions.

From a high tackle penalty the other way Skegness didn’t react quick enough and fast thinking saw Horncastle tap and move the ball quickly to score under the posts. 7-7.

In a turn of play Horncastle score again straight from the kickoff when their inside centre who impressed with his strength all day ripped the ball mid tackled and sprinted clear to put in one final pass to beat the fullback and score under the posts 14-7.

At the start of the second quarter Skegness looked nailed on to score when centre Keyun Benson broke through the middle and found an offload to his centre partner Arron Radford only for the now very slippery ball to be spilling in contact.

Skegness rebuilt the attack and a strong line break by prop Locke saw him pass inside to Joe Green who made it to within 2m of the Horncastle line. From the resulting ruck scrum half Hummel sniped well to score. 14-14.

Horncastle stroll back almost immediately with a strong run by their winger to score in the corner 19-14 HT.

At the start of the third quarter a penalty to Skegness (again for a high tackle) allowed Mason East to tap and carry to within 5m of the Horncastle try line. From the ruck Lewis Eldin picked and went over the top of the defence to dot down. 19-19.

After a chip over the top by Horncastle the ball was gather by second row Eldin to run into the tackle of the Horncastle Centre who just like in the first half stripped the ball expertly and ran clear down the wing to score unopposed. 24-19.

A trademark sniping run from John Hummel took the ball into the Horncastle 22. The ball was eventually recycled to find Joe Green on the wing. A deft offload to the supporting fullback Carlos Reyes saw him score in the corner. 24-24

The final quarter started with better intensity from Skegness. A wide pass found PROP Locke on the charge who bounced off two would-be tacklers and in an amazing turn of pace beat the covering fullback on the outside to score a fantastic solo try from 60m out. 24 - 31

Almost immediately after Hummel again broke through with a mazy run and brought the ball into the Horncastle 22. The ball was moved through the hands where Skegness hand plenty of numbers - allowing Eldin to run in under the posts. 24 - 38

At the point Skegness felt the had control over the game but when they tried to play out of their own 22 after the resulting restart a ball didn’t go to hand allowing Horncastle to move the ball wide to score the final try in the corner 29-38.

Man of the match went to Captain Adam Ongley for his superb carrying, breaking the gain line on almost every run.

Skegness will take some positives from today but also look to improve on their performance in what will be a much sterner test next week at home to North Hykeham in the RFU Cup.