Hull Ionians V Bridlington

Sunday 13 April 2008

Hull Ionians 34 – Bridlington 12

Ionians entered the pool this week after being let down by Newark and also knowing they would be playing without 6 of the squad who were representing the county. Bridlington agreed to travel and came ready for a game.
Ionians turned out a bare 15 with a very different front 5 and back line were also ready for a game. Bridlington started with the ball and after a few passages of play were forced backwards and a poor pass under pressure was intercepted by Torkington near the line who scored the first of his 3 tries.
Ionians forwards continued to dominate and combining technique with aggression, recycled ball after ball. Joe Reynard came close with about 10 minutes gone but failed to ground the ball. As Bridlington failed to take advantage of the error, Joe Midgley picked up and drove over to score.
Both tries were unconverted and Bridlington regrouped but were unable to break the Ionians defence. The Ionians forwards continued to dominate and some excellent back moves were thwarted by the solid Brid defence. Wingers Bainbridge and Rodgers both having come close. Eventually Bainbridge got the space to run and crossed from about 20 meters out. Torkington also scored again after a breaking blind.
The half time score line of 20 – 0 was a fair reflection although had some of the Brid players concentrated more on playing than talking, the gap may have been less.
The 2nd half saw Ionians come close several times but good defence on the wings kept them out. With 10 minutes gone a quick tap penalty in his own 22 gave the Brid No 10 Ben Johnson enough room to race down the centre of the field to score. Johnson converted his own try and Bridlington started to grow in confidence.
Good attacking Rugby and good handling led to a try for each side, Bainbridge scoring his second for Ionians. The Bridlington 13 touching down for them. As the Ionians forwards continued to win the ball and out power their opposition, a final individual try from Torkington sealed the victory and the conversion put his individual points tally to 19.
Although some missed tackling allowed Bridlington to score twice in the game, this was an excellent team performance and although each player should be congratulated, Tom Doris, Alistair Wilde and Henry Waine deserve special mentions. Joe Midgely was also awarded man of the match.