Hull Ionians 30 Sheffield Tigers 23
Hull Ionians teamwork brought them a bonus point try and victory in the dying minutes after Sheffield Tigers seemed to have snatched a draw five minutes earlier. Adam Thomas was once again the hero of the hour as he broke from a scrum on the 22 with replacement Sam Bowring racing up in support to take the scoring pass having only just come on to the pitch.
Both teams continued their record of playing good entertaining rugby keeping the ball moving in a tight contest and also defended solidly to deny their opponents.
Hull Ionians had the edge and had they taken all their scoring chances would have won comfortably with their teamwork seeing 4 players vying for man of the match. Joe Makin and Ross Noonan were the pick of the forwards with Dave Marshall and Adam Thomas outstanding in the backs.
Hull Ionians applied pressure straight from the kick-off forcing a penalty after Dave Marshall and Sam Wilson kicked and chased. The forwards drove on from the attacking line-out and Danny Hague peeled off and dived over, being denied a second later, being judged to have made a double movement.
Tigers came back with good recycled possession and desperate attempts to get at the ball created penalties with Johnny West soon adding a goal.
Hull Ionians took play to the line then lost the ball and the counter attack once again conceded a penalty to West, adding a third on 35 minutes.
To close the half Adam Thomas broke from a scrum on half way with Joe Sanders taking play on, then quick ball released Oli Marns to the corner to retake the lead.
Hull Ionians had the wind advantage after the break and set a fast pace and a break by Glenn Boyd soon created a penalty for Marshall.
Four minutes later they were back at the goal line through forward power and Adam Thomas dived over the top to score, Marshall converting.
Tigers showed how to drive and retain the ball into the wind finally and finally released Jamie Broadley to break tackles and run under the posts, West converting.
Hull Ionians reasserted control now they had the ball to gain another penalty to Marshall.
The Tigers now took a turn at ball retention and released Peter Swatkins to the posts, West converting to level the scores with 10 minutes to go.
Tigers again controlled the ball from the restart but Hull Ionians finally forced an error to gain an attacking scrum from which Adam Thomas sent Sam Bowring under the posts to win the match, Marshall adding the final goal.
There was still 4 minutes of added time but Hull Ionians made no mistake keeping the ball tight until the referee indicated time so they could boot it off the field securing 5 more valuable league points.
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