Preston Grasshoppers 53 Hull Ionians 17: Seven-try romp leaves Dan delighted
Preston Grasshoppers rounded off their home season in magnificent style with a seven-try demolition of fourth-placed Hull Ionians.
After scoring two tries in the first three minutes, the result was barely in doubt, leaving head coach Dan Orwin saying: “I am really proud of the lads.
“It was a nice way to finish our home games and the way we took our tries was phenomenal. We moved the impressively to use our pace on the wings, and our scramble defence on the line was excellent.
“We have made good progress and are in good form.”
Ionians must have felt they had barely got off the coach before they found themselves 17-0 down. Tom Ailes scored from the first line-out drive and Sam Freeman pocketed 12 points from a try, following interpassing with Jacob Browne, two conversions and a penalty.
Strong goal-line defence kept Ionians at bay until they scored their own, unconverted, line-out try. Hoppers missed three good chances to score when they twice knocked on over the line and saw Browne denied by a brilliant cover tackle.
But Freeman jinked over after good handling while Ionians had Adam Brankley in the sin bin, and the full-back converted his own try for a 24-5 lead at the break.
Ionians started the second half with another line-out try, converted by Ben Smith, but Hoppers regained control when Sammy Russell set up Hugo Castle for a score and Owain Williams made the most of Scott Richardson’s break for another. Freeman converted both before the hosts hit their only real sticky patch.
AIles was yellow-carded for a late tackle as Ionians felt they had been robbed of a certain try and Danny Maher quickly followed him to the sin bin, while Louis Singleton was stretchered off with a nasty-looking kneecap injury.
In between, the visitors scored another unconverted try, but Hoppers regrouped and rounded off an excellent afternoon’s work with a Freeman penalty, a brilliant solo try by Zeph Maher straight from the restart and a final score from Ben Haigh.
Freeman ended with 28 points to take him well past 250 for the season, but Russell picked up the man-of-the-match award for his all-round game management as Hoppers consolidated ninth place in National League Two North.