Hull Ionians 35 v 19 Hull RUFC

It’s not all about winning, but it mostly is and Ionians comfortably took the spoils in the derby match at Brantingham Park. Not so much a game of two halves, more of four quarters and the visitors only managed to shade the third session, that was thanks largely to the impact of prop, Charlie Beech.
However, his influence waned along with his stamina and the home side finished with a bonus point try which was the least their greater aptitude and endeavour deserved.
Both sides came to the fixture with a much-changed squad from their last meeting and on this viewing it looks like Ionians have adapted better, though, they have had several weeks longer to integrate the new personnel.
For the hosts, Rikki Stout and Jack Townend were already familiar faces, Greg Minikin a familiar name at least, and the home supporters got a first look at James Watts, George Hotchen, Adam Brankley and Jamal Khalil.
Hotchen didn’t have long enough to impress before succumbing to injury, but that particular cloud had a silver lining for Charlie Kirk, who bagged a brace of tries from the unaccustomed position out on the wing.
Watts, Brankley and Khalil showed to be astute acquisitions; Watts doing exactly what you want from a 10, Brankley brings a better balance to the back -row and Khalil produced an all-action performance that won him the MoM.
Ionians had much the better of the first ten minutes; some crisp handling had Hull continually on the back foot and when they were caught off-side Lewis Minikin was able to open the scoring with a penalty.
From the re-start a succession of penalties allowed Ionians to move into the Hull 22. The line-out was secured and the ball swept across field. Playing advantage, following a high tackle on Townend, Watts floated a pinpoint kick back across field to pick out Kirk, who casually caught the ball and dotted down. The conversion drifted wide but Ionians were 8 points in front with just over quarter of an hour gone.
Ionians were then repeatedly pinged at the breakdown to allow Hull some continuity of possession but any progress they made was hampered by their inability to string more than a couple of passes together at any one time.
Ionians soon made them pay. Line-out ball was swung across the field and back inside to Brankley, who breached the defence before going to ground. Sam Pocklington was quick to spot George Mewburn on the gallop and he strode through to the line for Ionians’ second try.
Another break away almost brought a third score, but the final pass in an excellent handling move failed to match the build up and the chance went begging with the line wide open.
Minikin added a penalty just before the break to extend the lead to 16 points. With the home side anticipating a rest, Hull made their first meaningful entry into the opposition 22 and from a scrum were able to drive forward to within an inch of the line before switching play down the line to winger Tom Lineham, who crossed close to the flag. A good conversion from Reece Dean cut the score to 16 – 7 at oranges.
Ionians made a perfect start to the second half. Hull made a mess of the kick-off to gift Ionians a line-out. The throw was good and quick transfer to Greg Minikin, coming into the line off his wing, presented the chance to show his power, bumping off tackles on his way to the line. Minikin L. added the two points, 23 – 7.
Kirk, enjoying his role on the wing, had a dash down the touch but couldn’t pick out the support and Hull scrambled the ball away into touch.
This brought a decent response from Hull. They put a penalty into touch 10m from the home line. A well worked move, the ball thrown to the front and Beech charging on through the resulting gap, led to the visitors pressing up to the line and their outstanding player, Liam Regardsoe, powered over for the try.
The score went unconverted but Hull gained some confidence from the score. Centre, Vasu Sukani, broke clean through the mid-field and galloped away. Under no pressure whatever though, he threw a pass that evaded the two men outside him. It was so outrageously propelled, it was probably better aimed for a none existent player on the second team pitch.
Sukani soon atoned for his error. He collected a pass at a standstill and set off for the line, on the way evading some variable attempts to stop him. He hopped, skipped and jumped his way to the line, finally shirking off Britton as he stretched out to dot down.
Dean converted to bring the score to a slightly more than uncomfortable 23 -19.
Ionians conjured the next score from nothing. The pack had driven the ball forward 20 yards until Hull got enough bodies behind the ball to bring things to a standstill. The ball came out of the breakdown and into the hands of Josh Britton. He put in a speculative kick in the general direction of the try line where, much to the surprise of everyone, Charlie Kirk leapt like a salmon, snatched the ball from thin air and swallow dived to score (at least that’s his Dad’s version of events).
In reality, Hull failed miserably to deal with a routine kick and Charlie was on hand to capitalise. Unchacteristically, Minikin L missed for the third time from the tee but I’s had extended the lead to 28 – 19.
There was still fifteen minutes of the match remaining but Ionians wrested back control. The forwards managed to overcome the problems at the scrum and the yips they encountered at the line-out to provide a good platform for the backs to demonstrate some of their abilities.
Tenacious defending held them up but eventually the hosts produced some scintillating play that led to the try of the match.
From a line-out on their own 22 Ionians whipped the ball out to Minikin L, he drew in two defenders allowing the space for Townend to career 30 yards up field. He had the support of Brankley who timed a delightful “pop” pass up to Khalil who went charging for the line. He was dragged down inches short but he presented the ball beautifully for James Malcolmson to pick up and plunge over. Minikin L potted the goal to push the score out to 35 – 19.
There was just long enough left for Hull to mount one last assault. They got a line-out to with 10m of the home line but failed to secure possession. Mewburn grabbed the loose ball and exited it into touch; game over, match won.
Next week Ionians travel to newly promoted Macclesfield. If selected this will be Joe Makin’s 400th game for the first team. Worth a drive over?