Ionians came away from their first visit to a bright and blustery Welford Road with all five points, outscoring South Leicester 4 tries to 2, a result that took them to the top of N2N. It was not a game that will linger long in the memory.
For the second successive week Ionians were bettered in the set scrum but reaped revenge with three tries coming from well executed
driving mauls and not for the first time they threatened more than they delivered.
The home side showed their intent early in the game, outside half Ben Palmer brushing aside his opposite number to run in under the posts following a series of drives from the pack, Palmer added the goal and South Leicester were underway with a 7 – 0 lead.
Ionians hit back with the first catch and drive finished by Ben Bell, After setting the ball Ionians probed for a weakness, they drove towards the line with the maul splintering to allow I’s a clear drive to the line. There was then fifteen minutes of tedious play, illuminated by a break featuring Minikin and Wilson, before Ionians struck twice in quick succession to take the lead.
Ionians worked their way up field and benefitting from two successive penalties, found themselves within 10m of the South Leicester line. In went the throw, up went the dependable Newman and Ionians set off to rumble over for their second try, Ben Bell again clinging on the ball to flop over the line. Lewis Minikin put over a well judged conversion and Ionians were 7 – 12 to the good.
Within a couple of minutes the visitors had extended the lead from another line-out catch and drive, this time James Newman grounding the ball, and it looked as if Ionians might overrun a tiring home side.
That this didn’t transpire owed much to a dogged performance from the home team and to the unaccountably subdued performance from the visitors. South Leicester were the next to register on the scoreboard, lively winger Mitchelle Stephenson squeezing over after the forwards had set up the platform close to the line.
Buoyed by the score South Leicester attacked Ionians using the tried and tested pick and drive, interspersed with powerful runs up the centre from centre McNulty. They were unable to make any significant inroads into the well marshalled defence and after absorbing the assault Ionians delivered the coup de grace.
The bonus point try came from an exquisitely judged kick from Tom Stephenson dropping over the onrushing home defence giving Lewis Minikin, who was alert to the situation, the easiest of tries as he ran through to catch the ball and touch down. Minikin added the conversion and Ionians held a healthy lead, 12 – 24.
There was still 15 minutes to play. They were 15 relatively uneventful minutes, except for Ben Bell and replacement Adam Brown, both of whom were yellow carded. This gave their colleagues a more difficult task, keeping Leicester at bay, but they managed to do so to deny the hosts anything from the match.
Next week Ionians are in action at home to Chester, hopefully it will be a more entertaining event than this match, but if not then let us hope for a similar result.