Hull Ionians 5 v 52 Darlington Mowden Park

Ionians succumbed to a second successive heavy defeat, following the 70 -16 setback against Birmingham, in the home fixture against Darlington Mowden Park. This wouldn’t necessarily be too concerning, other than the season is only two weeks old.
The hosts started calamitously, the defensive line standing to admire as Callum Irvine sold a dummy to cross under the posts in the opening minute, and Darlington looked lively and purposeful as they repeatedly stretched the Ionians defence in the opening exchanges.
A long-range penalty from the versatile Seremaia Turagabeci came back off the crossbar and a good follow up from Rahat Choudhury put Ionians into the “red zone” to pile on the pressure. A hurried clearance gave Ionians a line-out within striking distance and Ben Stephenson came up with a try following a successful catch and drive.
Confidence grew within the home side with the pack beginning to wrestle control and a good move along the backline swept the ball 60m down field. It provided only brief respite before Irvine waived a four man overlap to cross for his second try.
With DMP’s prop forward Appleby in the bin Ionians had an opportunity to reduce the arrears as the half came to a close but failed to capitalise, despite being awarded several penalties within the visitors 22.
DMP continued to look the more accomplished side, particularly outside the scrum, with the hosts pressed into a valiant rear-guard for the beginning of the second half. The line held for 10 minutes before being breached. Injuries took their toll on the home side and the powerful Darlington backs exploited the gaps left by the walking wounded with a brace of tries for McCartney and one each for Frankland and Walker during a disappointingly one-sided period.
Ionians re-organised their depleted resources and held the visitors at bay for 10 minutes but Darlington had too much pace and power and added late tries through Craggs and Pepper, who was rewarded for good support play following another powerful break by Walker. Seals converted 6 of the 8 tries Darlington scored to complete another miserable afternoon for Ionians.