Yorkshire Cup

In a breathtaking game of rugby Hull Ionians Spartans Under 11s beat West Park Leeds 12-7 to progress into the quarter finals of the Yorkshire Cup. Starting at a blistering pace Ionians looked dangerous with runs from Riley Young and Jack Hassard but strong defence from West Park thwarted them. The Leeds side started to take command and after four minutes won the ball from a scrum and scored a converted try for a 0-7 lead. Back came Ionians with Alistair Hall getting the ball out wide and from one of these moves a powerful run from Thomas Poole resulted in a pass out to Jack Hassard who raced over the line for the try and up stepped Joe Baarda for the conversion. Then followed some extreme pressure from West Park and they pinned Ionians in their own half for the last five minutes and only some brave tackling from Thomas Shirra, Piers Smythe, Ben Teasdale and Jack Cochran saved the day. In the very last seconds of this pulsating first half West Park were frustrated when held up right on the tryline by Ollie Parker, Joe Baarda, Red Silk and Jack Wilson and the score was 7-7. The second period saw a transformation as Ionians defence started strong led by Thomas Shirra, Red Silk, Jack Hassard, Riley Young and Ben Teasdale. This put West Park on the back foot and nearly all the play was in their half and it proved difficult for them to reduce the pressure. Jack Scaife and Jack Cochran were live wires in attack whilst Piers Smythe was winning all the lineouts. Ionians scrummaging was improving as the game went on with Finley Carmichael Graves, Chris Fox and Ben Teasdale pushing forward and Ollie Parker was unlucky when held up on the line. Thomas Shirra and Jack Hassard were menacing every time they received the ball on the right hand side, from one of these brilliant probes Jack Hassard fed the ball to Thomas Shirra who scooted home for the touchdown. Now on a roll Ollie Parker was yet again held up on the line as Ionians were unstoppable going forward. With only a couple of minutes left West Park made a breakout from their own tryline but were outdone when Jack Hassard tracked over to the left hand side to put the winger into touch and full time was reached with victory to Hull Ionians 12-7. This was a magnificent team performance from Ionians, their best of the season so far against a very strong West Park with every player in the squad standing out thus keeping the season unbeaten run continuing