Comprehensive victory keeps Ionians in touch at top while Otley hang on

Hull Ionians continued their great form with a 41-15 victory over Dudley Kingswinford at Brantingham Park.

Second-placed Ionians ran in six tries to maintain their unbeaten start to the season.

After stand-off James Ferguson had kicked an early penalty, flanker Kerry Wood and No 8 Daniel Hague touched down in quick succession.

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The visitors added a penalty to their early try, but Ionians led 27-8 at the break with Hague scoring his second try and second row Joe Makin adding another, while Ferguson converted.

Dudley hit back with a converted try, but Ionians marched on to victory with centre Richard Fletcher and scrum-half Isaac Green touching down, Ferguson adding the extras.

Hull secured their first league victory of the season when they beat hosts Westoe 25-19.

It was 7-7 at the break thanks to Alex Piercy’s try, converted by Greg Lound. After the break, Lound added a penalty before further tries from Jamie Clark and two from Matthew Tony.

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Sheffield Tigers notched up a five-point win when they beat Huddersfield 58-30 at Dore Moor.

Centre Jamie Broadley touched down twice and stand-off Tom Outram kicked both conversions and two penalties as Tigers led 20-13 at half-time. Full-back Thomas Owen kicked two penalties for Huddersfield, and also converted a Nick Sharpe try.

Huddersfield narrowed the gap with a 43rd-minute Owen penalty, but Tigers were soon into their stride with Outram adding a third penalty and converting tries on 58 and 65 minutes by Pete Swatkins and Russ White.

Owen scored and converted two tries for the visitors as they put up a good fight, but Tigers made sure of victory with further tries from flanker Frank Wragg and full-back Ed Stiles, while Broadley completed his hat-trick.

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Otley held on to edge out Caldy 32-29 in an entertaining game at Cross Green which showed why both teams were at the top end of the national Two North table.

The home side built themselves a 32-6 lead, but had to defend under intense pressure in the final quarter with a man short for 10 minutes.

A confident start had Caldy on the backfoot before a Dan Cooper penalty opened the scoring, only for the visitors to hit back through Richard Vasey.

A fine drive by the pack from 18 metres out resulted in a try for Johnathan Matthews, with Cooper converting and, after Vasey had kicked a second penalty, good approach work saw James Twomey go over, with Cooper adding the extras.

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After a second Cooper penalty, Otley received the first of two second-half yellow cards but this seemed to inspire them with Daniel Temm and Toby Williams both scoring converted tries.

With the bonus point secured they now set about denying Caldy any but in a hectic five- minute spell they had their lead reduced, replacement scrum-half Gavin Roberts going over before No 8 Stuart Cross went in under the posts, both converted by Vasey.

It set-up a nail-biting finale, but the home defence proved equal to the task.

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