Ionians hang on to maintain challenge

Ionians, second, and Darlington, third, had not yet met and although the scoreline suggests a tight game, Ionians could have been much more comfortable.

Darlington full-back Christopher McTurk put his side in the lead before Joe Sanders struck back for Hull after a blindside break from Adam Thomas.

Thomas was also instrumental in Hull’s second try just before half-time. After a long period of pressure, it was his pass that found Steve Johnson five metres out and the prop powered through to put the ball down.

Kerri Wood extended Hull’s lead after the break and with 20 minutes to go, they looked to be out of sight. But Darlington didn’t give up and another try from McTurk and further scoring through Cameron Mitchell and Luke Wishnowski made it a tense finale to the match.

As at Dore Moor at the start of the season, Sheffield Tigers went 17 points down in the first 15 minutes at Preston Grasshoppers before fighting their way back into contention.

But whereas they scraped a 
23-20 win in their last meeting, this time they had to settle for two bonus points when they scored four tries to three but lost 27-26.

Grasshoppers went ahead with tries by prop Andy Irvine and winger Adam Birchall, both converted by Sean Taylor who also added two penalties.

Tigers hit back with two tries by Peter Swatkins, the first converted by Tom Outram, to bring the score back to 20-12 at half-time.

Taylor completed the home team’s scoring when he converted his own try and, although Tigers gained a four-try bonus through further scores by Outram and Jamie Broadley, they missed out.