Preston Grasshoppers 45 Hull 29: Orwin delighted with best display of the campaign
In what head coach Dan Orwin had no hesitation in describing as their “best performance of the season”, Preston Grasshoppers survived a period in the last quarter of the game when they were down to 13 men, to pick up all five points.
“It’s been a long time coming, but I am really happy,” said Orwin. “We had to work hard for it, especially when we were down to 13, but this was a 20-man effort.
“Our first 15 minutes were exceptional, then we dropped off a bit, but were really resilient in the second half.”
Hoppers scored on their first visit to the Hull 22, with hooker Harry Holden driven over from a line-out. Fly-half Greg Smith started as he carried on, with a fine conversion, for the first of his 20 points in the game. He would miss just one kick throughout the 80 minutes.
The hosts raced to a 15-0 lead, with winger Jacob Browne capitalising on great work by centres Sammy Russell and Ed Keohane for the second try, and Smith landing a penalty.
But the visitors showed they were no pushovers, with tries by threequarters Keane Naylor and Bureta Farimo, both converted by Fynley Hobson, who also kicked a penalty, for a 17-15 lead.
But Smith edged his side in front at the break with a penalty and Hoppers struck again at the start of the second half through Holden’s 10th try of the campaign. Smith converted that and a brilliant solo effort from winger Owain Williams, who snapped up a loose ball in his own half and showed a clean pair of heels for the bonus-point try.
The lead soon became 22 points with a converted try by scrum-half Ciaran O’Donnell, before a disastrous couple of minutes put Hull back in the game.
Replacement prop Dan Hill was sin-binned for a high tackle, quickly followed by flanker Rob Willetts for illegally preventing a drive for the line by Hull, which also led to a penalty try.
But that was when Hoppers’ game management came to the fore, with good work by the replacements helping to deny Hull for most of the sin-bin period and even engineering the position for a Smith penalty.
The Humbersiders did nibble away at the lead with an unconverted try by fly-half Harrison Astley, but Hoppers reorganised skilfully to run down the clock and even managed another Smith penalty to seal a well-deserved win, which lifts them back to sixth in National League Two North.