Ilkley 31 Hull 6

WHEN Ilkley took the field on a glorious September day, they certainly looked to be giving away a stone a man to their unbeaten opponents.

It looked an uphill task, but an astonishingly good performance saw the Dalesmen home with a full five points in the bag.

The pack was again impressive and with the backs coming on song too, this was a great team effort.

Ilkley made a lively start and when Ben Magee fielded a Hull clearance kick, the full back set off on one of his trademark runs.

Halted 30 metres out, Hull infringed at the breakdown and Joe Rowntree meted out the punishment to put his side ahead.

Straight back into the Hull 22, Ilkley’s set piece looked solid, only a knock-on preventing a try. Then in carbon-copy fashion, Hull’s full back Tomassi Tanumi gathered a high ball and attacked, earning a penalty at the breakdown. However, the same player was unable to replicate Rowntree’s sweetness of strike and the kick drifted wide.

Ilkley made Hull pay for the miss when Magee ran from his own half supported by Elliot Morgan and Luke Freer on the left.

Play was switched to the right and stand off Charles Ramsey saw acres of space on Hull’s left flank. A precision kick rolled nicely over the Hull goal line and there was the returning J-H Johnson on hand to dot down. Rowntree added the extras and Ilkley were 10-0 up.

Ilkley were reduced to 14 men when Will Davies was shown a yellow card so JH Johnson was moved from wing to No8.

Ilkley weathered several storms before attempting a quick free kick which went badly wrong, allowing Hull to claw back three points courtesy of a Tanumi penalty.

Ilkley were looking for that little bit of magic and it arrived just before half-time when new boy Martyn Mitchell stole a Hull line and shrugged off several tackles to score close to the posts. Rowntree’s conversion made it 17-3 at half-time.

The game was effectively closed out when Ilkley’s dynamic start to second half resulted in a scrum on Hull’s 20m line.

The scrum won, Johnson went close and from the resultant scrum, Hull’s Rupert Hay saw yellow and Davies capitalised. Rowntree’s kick was good to make it 24-3.

Hull’s increasingly desperate attacks were repelled with a defensive aggression that was a pleasure to behold.

With just 20 minutes to go, Hull had no choice but to throw in the kitchen sink and so redoubled their efforts. This resulted in a try for No8 Joseph Stafford, after Ilkley had made a mess of a defensive scrum.

Hull continued to press but a great steal of Hull’s line-out by Mitchell saw Ilkley break free from their own half.

Kirk Arundale, who had replaced skipper Rowntree at scrum half, broke down the blindside from the final scrum of the game. Magee came into play and his show of the ball to the supporting Johnson fooled the defence and the entire stand. The confidence of youth shone through though, as Magee converted his own try with some panache and that was it. What a day !