Hull Ionians maintained their winning ways to the new season with a 34 – 12 victory over newly promoted Peterborough. The visitors certainly enjoyed the lions share of possession but had difficulty breaking down the home defence, in which the back-row was outstanding, and struggled to cope with the threat posed by the Ionians back-line.
The Lions made an enthusiastic start and kept Ionians in their own 22 during the early exchanges. The hosts eventually cleared up field where Peterborough were penalised for collapsing a scrum, Sam Crane kicked to the corner, the ball was cleanly taken and driven on before being swung across the backs to Sam Wilson who had a clear run to the line.
Ionians added to score virtually from the re-start; they set the ball from the kick off and then moved it swiftly across the field, the back-row duo of Sanderson and Torkington combined to carry the ball 30m before picking out winger Toni Kuku. He was held but slipped a neat pass out to Isaac Green racing up in support and he sprinted clear to the posts.
The home side made it three tries in 10 minutes when a series of drives from the pack created space for James Tinknell to cut through several attempted tackles and power away to score. Green added his second conversion to give Ionians a 19 point lead.
Peterborough redoubled their efforts and were rewarded with a close range try by prop, Chris Cutts. They put the Ionians pack under pressure, shunting them backwards, and after the initial drive was held they worked the ball up the blind-side and burrowed over, Nico Defeo added a well judged conversion to pull the score back to 19 – 7.
Ionians broke away again, Kuku and Minikin combining to cover half the length of the field, and Sam Crane put over a well struck drop goal, not the most obvious or best option in the circumstances, but three points nonetheless.
The hosts failed to make anything at all of a searing 40m break from the rampaging Ben Bell, profligacy in the extreme, with the ball being turned over allowing Peterborough to clear the danger despite Ben Whyte charging down the clearing kick.
Peterborough demonstrated a commendable aptitude for ball retention, going through innumerable phases as they worked their way back up field but a knock on gave Ionians the ball and Sam Crane put the ball into touch to close the half.
The Lions continued to dominate possession but failed to make many inroads into the Ionians defence. Ionians couldn’t claim the same ability to keep hold of the ball. Peterborough got a real opportunity when hooker Robinson latched onto a ball thrown loose in the tackle and raced away. He passed across to winger Allen Carr who looked to have a clear run in but Minikin cut across to make a last gasp tackle to put Carr into touch.
Ionians responded with some eye catching breaks from Wilson and birthday boy James Newman and they should have claimed a fourth try but were pulled back for crossing.
Peterborough continued to battle away, what they lacked in enterprise the more than made up for with endeavour and with just over an hour gone their stand out player, Jack Askham made Ionians pay for their handling mistakes when, following yet more lost possession, he outpaced the defence to run in from 20m.
Frustration was evident in players and supporters alike; over an hour played, the lead cut to 10 points, ¾ of an hour since the third score and still no sign of a bonus point try.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man (68 minutes actually, but who’s counting). Ionians introduced some urgency into their play and found themselves with a penalty close to the Lions line. Adam Thomas tapped the ball quickly and darted away, the forwards were in close support and the ball was popped out to Sam Crane, a wiggle and a shimmy took him to a yard from the line before being held but the soon-to -be legendary Ben Bell was there to take the pass and dive gracefully over to score.
Peterborough were now chasing the game and replacement scrum-half, Franco Perticaro, introduced a more open game, spraying the ball around. The Lions posed more of a threat, though they were still unable to break through. Their final attempt resulted in Ionians fifth try, a break away was halted by Steve Slingsby allowing Lewis Minikin to strip the ball and sprint away. He in turn was held up by fullback Meyers but was able to offload to Turagabeci who ran on to score in the corner. Crane was wide with the conversion attempt, but the kick brought the match to a conclusion.
Ionians victory was built on a solid defence, particularly noteworthy was the effort of the back- row, though James Newman also deserves mention. I’s will have to hold on to possession better than they did in this match, or be much more clinical with the chances they created, if they are to prosper against the likes of next weeks high fliers, Hinkley. We will see next week.