Huddersfield RU 6

Hull Ionians 3

(Division II North)

A BRACE of penalties made it ‘seven up’ for Huddersfield as they continued their tremendous winning run to stay in touch with the League’s front-runners.

Coach Dan Hyde however, was the first to admit this was not one of his team’s better performances, as for large parts of the game they lost much of their sparkle against a rapidly-improving Hull Ionians side, who have recruited furiously in their bid to stave off the threat of relegation.

Ionians were the first team to beat Huddersfield this season and with five new loan signings (including Huddersfield’s own Ben Harris) from Championship club Rotherham, and Doncaster Knights full-back Mike Bateman in their ranks, it always threatened to be a difficult result to reverse.

And it was the visitors who applied all the early pressure, with only some adroit kicking from fly-half Chris Johnson pushing Hull back into their own half.

For once Huddersfield struggled to retain any worthwhile possession, as Ionians were dominant in the scrum, while bossing the line-outs, and when the home side did manage a clean take, they were invariably pulled up by referee Karl Kirkpatrick.

The former Super League whistler is coming up through the ref ranks after he switched codes to try his hand at the Union game.

It was probably the frustration of having to play for such long periods without the ball that led to Johnson’s ‘over-exuberant’ tackle on a Hull player which led to him being sin-binned.

Former Rotherham fly-half Dave Marshall missed the ensuing penalty however, and the Huddersfield side stepped up a gear in the absence of their talismanic No10 and forced Hull back into their own 22 from where Huddersfield were awarded a penalty wide out on the left.

With his time up, Johnson returned to the field and indicated a kick at goal, only for the referee to send him back to the sidelines as the offence had been committed with him off the field.

So full-back Tom Owen stepped up and duly send the ball soaring between the sticks for the only score of the first half.

Marshall levelled the contest five minutes after the restart as once again the visitors looked to try and re-assert themselves and were certainly having the upper hand in the scrum where Huddersfield skipper Nick Sharpe was frequently having to tidy up with the pack going backwards on their own put in.

Both sides were guilty of too much kicking as the ball was pinged from one side to the other before Johnson landed a penalty which just sneaked over the bar to give his side the narrowest of leads.

And he almost extended it five minutes later, after strong running down the left flank from Lee Paxman and Adam Ryder had taken play up to Hull’s 22, but when the ball was moved into centre-field, his attempted drop goal set off wide, curled round, but then bounced off the right upright to safety.

Marshall meanwhile missed a second penalty attempt after Field were pulled up for a high tackle.

With 15 minutes remaining, coach Ian Shuttleworth sent on the fresh legs of Francis Entressengle to replace Ben Hoye at flanker, while Chris Duffy and Hyde came on for James Davies and Joel Hinchliffe and Huddersfield began to forge downfield with some powerful running from man-of-the-match Gavin Rhodes who was a tower of strength all game and Gareth Lewis who also put in a hard day’s graft at the coalface.

Entressengle and Morrill also began making inroads into Hull’s tiring defence, and it was Huddersfield who finished by far the stronger of the two sides to close out their final home game of 2011 on a winning note.

“It definitely wasn’t one of our better performances, but we still managed the win, which I thinks says a lot for the determination of the lads,” admitted Hyde.

“For whatever reason we suffered disruption in the line-outs, and when we did win good ball we seemed to get penalised.

“But we stuck at it, and I though Gav (Rhodes) had an immense game.

“He’s got a good rugby head on him. He also tackled, took up the ball strongly and made a right nuisance of himself in the rucks and mauls, and altogether he was like a lighthouse in a storm.”

Huddersfield: Owen; Ryder; Clark, Paxman, Hall; Johnson, Hinchliffe; Battye, Morrill, Stringwell, Davies, Rhodes, Lewis, Hoyle, Sharpe. Subs Entressengle for Hoyle (65), Duffy for Hinchliffe (68), Hyde for Davies (68), Sutcliffe.

Hull Ionians: Bateman, Stephenson, Marns, Bowring, Due Randt, Marshall, Green; Harris, Rice, Johnson, Makin, Kench, Sanders, Noonan, Hague. Subs: (all used) Quigle, Forth, Skyrme, Wilson, Boyd.

Referee: Karl Kirkpatrick (Warrington).