Hull Ionians 48 Preston Grasshoppers 14: Hosts’ eight tries see the Hoppers well beaten.

Preston Grasshoppers’ head coach Dan Orwin was frustrated by their second-half performance as they lost 48-14 at Hull Ionians in National Two North, writes JOHN FREEMAN.

After a stalemate first half on Saturday, which saw a converted try apiece, Hull Ionians came out of the changing room and accelerated into the distance.

Orwin accepted that, had his team converted some of their first-half line breaks into points, things could have been very different and said: “Too many mistakes and unforced errors cost us dearly.”

The hosts were seemingly buoyed by Ben Stephenson’s try, converted by Ben Smith, just before half-time.

That came three minutes after Sam Freeman had given Hoppers the lead with a try, to which he also added the extras.

Ionians then pulled clear as, in a startling contrast to the first half, the second brought three tries in the first five minutes.

George Hotchen, Zen Rozenbroek and William Metcalfe all crossed the line with Smith converting the latter score to make it 24-7.

All four tries either side of half-time came during Jacob Browne’s 10 minutes in the sinbin before Ionians further increased Hoppers’ misery with three tries in another 10-minute spell.

Winger Metcalfe, clearly Ionians’ dangerman, crossed twice in completing his hat-trick with Oliver Arnold also going over.

Smith converted Metcalfe’s third try as Ionians built a 41-7 lead with 14 minutes remaining.

Hoppers managed to score again on 73 minutes when, after a sustained period of attack, Rory Brand broke out from a Hull knock-on.

He put Ben Haigh in to score, Joshua Ree converting, but Ionians were determined to have the last word.

They did so when the last play of the game saw Brayton Taylor score their eighth try and Smith add the extra two points for the fourth time.