Hull Ionians 5 – Blaydon 30

[match id=92]

Blaydon cruised to a comfortable win on their first visit in seven years to Brantingham Park in a game dominated by the forwards. Conditions were far from conducive to back play and flank-forward Harry Bate in particular took full advantage of some poor defending by the home side.

Andrew Baggett opened the scoring with a 10th minute penalty and then added the points to the first try when from a break down the right centres Tom Banks and Tom Grimes combined to send in Tom Jeffery for his 3rd of the season.

By the interval another Baggett penalty had taken the Blaydon advantage to 11 points with little or no response from Hull, and nothing changed in the early exchanges after the break.

Try No2 arrived courtesy of some more powerful work by the pack culminating in Bate storming into the 22 for Keith Laughlin the other flanker to finish off and Baggett convert.

The home side finally got their act together and pulled back 5 points through fly-half Chris Reakes but Blaydon were soon to restore the differential when Bate crashed over, Baggett again on target.

At 5-25 the game was effectively over but Blaydon continued to press for a 4th and bonus earning try, at one stage winning 5 line-outs against the throw. With time running out they finally secured the elusive score with Bate, inevitably, setting it up for Banks.

John Brennan