Ionians march on but Otley fail to do them any favours at powerful leaders

The hosts were 25-10 ahead at half-time with tries from wingers Will Heylings and Sam Wilson, stand-off James Ferguson and flanker Mark Wigham.

After the break they secured the win with further scores from second row Joe Makin and replacement front row Alex Forth.

Sheffield Tigers survived to scrape a 42-41 victory , both teams scoring five tries, in an eventful match against Bromsgrove at Dore Moor.

Tigers turned round 24-13 ahead, but the game was halted for an hour early in the second half because of a serious neck injury to a Bromsgrove player.

Tigers then went 39-27 in front before the visitors came back with two converted tries, the latter with the last move of the match, to claim two bonus points.

Bromsgrove had gone into an early 10-0 lead before Tigers hit back with tries by full-back Peter Swatkins and Jamie Broadley, both converted by Tom Outram, and Outram added a penalty as well as converting Broadley’s second try shortly before the break.

Alex Graham crossed for Tigers and Outram converted. Bromsgrove closed to within four points, but the home side were given breathing space when Swatkins touched down. Outram’s two late penalties proved crucial.

Hull went down 34-16 on their trip to Birmingham Solihull.They had a mountain to climb in the second half as they found themselves 20-10 down, Jamie Barnard their try scorer.

They managed to pull the score back to 20-16 through the kicking of Greg Lound. But with 15 minutes remaining, Hull’s Oli Cook received a straight red for a head-butt and the wind was taken from their sails as the home side went on to take a comfortable win.

It was never going to be easy for Otley at leaders and top scorers Stourbridge and so it proved as they went down 68-10.

Without six key men it was a monumental task. Otley demonstrated their efficiency on the few occasions they had good ball, their passing actually slicker, but the sheer strength of the home pack, added to the absence of prop Adam Blades for half the game with a blood injury, did not help.

A penalty from Stephen Depledge was all they had to show for the first half. second for a half-time score of 25-3. Luke Watts scored from Tom Rock’s chip and Chris Gemmel converted but Otley could not stem the tide.

Huddersfield suffered greatly at the hands of Sean Taylor in their 56-13 defeat at Preston Grasshoppers.

The full-back amassed 34 points from a hat-trick of tries, five conversions and two penalties.

Preston were 27-8 up by the interval after they edged the showdown in the forwards, allowing a solid platform for their attacking back line.

Hoppers scored eight tries in total against their opponents’ two, leaving Huddersfield to ponder just where their first win will come from.