Ionians despatch Hull rivals as Hinchliffe kicks boot into ‘Gate

Ionians made their intentions clear straight from the start when winger Sam Wilson raced over for an excellent try in the opening minute, but Hull replied with an equally good try by winger Jamie Clark on six minutes, converted by off-half James Cameron.

Isaac Green landed a penalty for Ionians and added the conversion when second row Rob Kench got the touchdown in a catch and drive try.

Slack defence allowed Joe Makin in for Ionians’ next try, converted by Green, before Cameron pulled back Hull’s only further score, a penalty on 33 minutes.

Makin scored his second try after the restart, also from a catch and drive, before Wilson sprinted over for his second and centre Joe Barker took advantage of weak defence to score a sixth.

Huddersfield were held to an 18-18 draw by Harrogate after failing to conjure up a try.

The sides were never more than five points apart in an intriguing contest. Huddersfield opened the scoring with a penalty by fly-half Joel Hinchliffe and relied on his accuracy for the remainder of the game.

Harrogate broke down the left through hooker Nicolo Nyemba to go 7-3 ahead, only for Hinchliffe to peg them back once more with successive penalties to make the half-time score 9-7. The first half saw sin-binnings for both sides after shoulder charges.

Hinchliffe stretched Huddersfield’s lead, only for Harrogate to come back with two quick kicks by stand-off Callum Irvine to snatch back the lead 13-12. Hinchliffe kicked his side 18-13 ahead after another sin-binning.

However, a missed a kick with 10 minutes remaining was to prove costly as, with two minutes remaining, Harrogate broke away down the right for lock Chris Wilson to score in the corner. Irvine failed to convert.

Despite a late rally, Otley fell 24-17 to Preston Grasshoppers.

Going behind 12-24 on 69 minutes Otley stirred themselves, a fine penalty into the corner from Jack Mackie set them up to drive No 8 Jack Paul Scott over and they spent the remainder of the game on their opponents’ line but failed to pierce a strong defence.

Lloyd Davies scored and converted on a breakaway to give Preston the lead and they soon added a second with an excellent drive, scrum-half Sam Kindred nipping over, Davies converting.

Otley forced James White over, Stephen Depledge converting and then Matt Heaton grounded from a forward drive. The visitors were allowed to gather a kick ahead through winger John Ward over in the corner for Lewis Allen to convert. He added a penalty after which it was all Otley but they managed just the one score.