A win is a win, as they say, and Ionians won; and yet at the final whistle there was a slight feeling of frustration that the margin of victory wasn’t more convincing, but relief that despite the performance not being as accomplished as of late, there was still five points garnered.
That obviously reflects the recent high levels we have witnessed from the home team, but must also acknowledge the determination and effort of the visitors. They, along with the Otley Town Whooping and a Hollering band, put in a very spirited display.
Ionians took an easy three points and an early lead with a Ben Smith penalty. Otley then made the most of a period of possession; good retention put them well into the Ionians half, with the hosts eventually clearing to touch on their 22. Otley took clean ball and drove in round the tail. Scrum-half, Will Beanland, picked out Henry Acland, who picked his way past some wayward tackling to score. Freddie Spensley added the conversion to put Otley 3 – 7 up after the opening ten minutes.
Buoyed by their success Otley continued to press away at the Ionians defence. Spensley accepted a chance to go for goal when Ionians were penalised (an increasingly frequent problem) and he made no mistake from in front of the posts, to take a seven-point lead.
When they had the ball Ionians had looked sharp, but they were prone to handling errors. They did eventually put together some decent stuff, Jimmy McDaniel had a good run down the stand-side touch before the ball was moved smartly across to the other wing for Cam Burnhill to stretch his legs.
He was pulled down just inside the 22 and the ball switched back in field. It then came back across to Burnhill, as he got back to his feet, for him to be able to hack it on and win the race to touch down. An excellent strike from Smith ensured the maximum points and tied the scores; 10 a piece after 25 minutes.
Ionians looked the better of the two sides coming up to the break and hot-headed Mudd did nothing to help Otley’s cause when he was shown a yellow card for blatantly interfering at the breakdown.
Ionians got full retribution with two tries in quick succession. Straight from the infringement Smith went to the corner. Up went Makin and on went the drive. It trundled right to the line before grinding to a halt, Sam Pocklington threw a perfectly weighted pass to Greg Minikin who stepped round his man and went over for the try. Smith added the goal to put Ionians back into the lead, 17 – 10.
Minikin was creating havoc through the mid-field and a powerful break had Otley back-peddling rapidly. The ball was moved quickly to George Hotchen, who looked as if he might make it to the line, he was grabbed first but was able to turn back inside to find Ben Stephenson running up in support and he plunged over to score. Another success for Smith brought the score to 24 – 10 with only a minute to the break.
Otley used the time for a long range pot at goal and Spensley made no mistake to take the teams to oranges with the scoreboard showing 24 -13.
The visitors made a good start to the second half. A charged down clearance kick kept Ionians trapped in their own 22 and a fired-up Otley pack battered away until Chris Jackson was able to breach the defensive wall and crash over. Spensley made no mistake off the tee to pull the score back to 24 – 20. Too close for comfort.
Otley enjoyed the better of the next twenty minutes. Ionians fleetingly offered to assert themselves but poor handling and persistently getting on the wrong side of the referee prevented any progress.
Otley failed to make anything of their territorial advantage, despite an abundance of enthusiasm, possibly being too predictable in approach play, which played into the hands of a well drilled side, such as Ionians are turning out to be. So, by the hour mark the result hung in the balance.
In fact, it wasn’t until the match entered the final ten minutes that there was any alteration to the scoreboard and it was the hosts who extended their lead.
Ionians were awarded a penalty on the Otley 22 and kicked to the corner. Makin secured the ball and the drive went on, and on and over. Adam Brankley came up with the ball to claim his 14th try of the season. Smith was off target but Ionians held a nine point advantage. Enough to see them to the final whistle, surely?
It was a nervous last few minutes. Otley came back with renewed vigour and the outstanding James Sanderson sacrificed himself to prevent a possible try, but earning a yellow card.
It was only a temporary reprieve, Otley piled in and went route one for innumerable phases, they got little change from the Ionians defence and eventually threw the ball wide where, with the help of a fortunate bounce, it fell to Ben Raubitschek to gather the ball and skip over. Spensley, nervelessly knocked over the difficult conversion to signal a frenetic finale.
Ionians saw it through to the whistle without mishap, Sam Pocklington kicking the ball out of play following a successful line-out. It was closer than it might have been but there is now a week off to salve a few bruised and battered bodies before it resumes up on Dore moor. Let’s hope spring has sprung by then.