Wood pride as Field make Hull dig depths

Hull Ionians ........ 20pts Huddersfield ...... 15pts

IONIANS missed out on a bonus-point victory over Huddersfield but were pleased with victory in an intensely-battled match.

James Sanderson, Ben Bell and the excellent Ed Falkingham all touched down to outdo a try in each half from Harry Davey and Elliot Knight.

Hull Ionians director of rugby and coach Martyn Wood was understandably thrilled with his team’s victory in a game that was always going to be tough against Field.

“Field made it difficult for us in the lineout and the scrum in patches, especially after the break,” said Wood.

“It was pleasing to see the players all getting stuck in for the full 80 minutes and they dug out the win in a very tight game.”

Ionians collected the kick-off and made good ground driving forwards but when possession was lost, Huddersfield had the strong wind at their backs for the first half and used it well to gain position.

After 13 minutes of play, multi-phase ball in the attacking 22 finally saw Field out-half Davey find a gap to jink through, Will Milner converting.

Both teams attacked in turn but against robust tackling the breakthrough was not easy, the home team guilty of losing possession just 10 metres out.

On 24 minutes two successive penalties against Field forced a five-metre lineout and a good take by James Newman and drive by the pack saw Sanderson peel off to score.

Five minutes later Ionians attacked in waves again, and when held a few metres short, Bell picked up and crashed through to score, Lewis Minikin adding the goal to lead 12-7 at the break.

A crafty restart saw Field collect their own kick and drive upfield. Ionians had a chance to clear but once again overthrew the lineout and Field were attacking again, finally creating an overlap for Knight to score in the corner to level the scores.

Four minutes later another Field attack saw the ball dropped and Falkingham kicked on twice to win a 60-metre race for Ionians’ third try.

Field drove forwards again and won a scrum penalty kicked by Milner and with ten minutes to go a break by Hodson nearly brought a try – the ball knocked on just short.

Two successive penalties put Field back in their 22 where Minikin added three points.

Eight minutes of extratime saw the game fought out in midfield, with Field’s final attack driven into touch to end the closelyfought match.

Huddersfield coach Gareth Lewis was pleased with his side’s performance and singled out his full-back for particular praise.

“Tom Hodson had an excellent game with his powerful, elusive running and has been improving every week,” said Lewis.

“I am proud that the team has once again competed toe-to-toe with one of many good teams in this league and am sure they will come back stronger after next week’s break.”