19th April 2008 -  Hull Ionians 21 Caldy 11 - National 3 North        pictures   more pictures  programme       N3N Review   Court

Hull Ionians finished the season with an excellent performance that beat one of the in form sides of the league. The victory was once again achieved by a high work rate and good team work to ensure they slowly gained the upper hand, repeatedly stealing the ball in the contact areas making Caldy struggle to progress when they had it. Rugby Director Grahame Simm was delighted with the performance of the team for the final match of the season, the players showed their passion and pride to ensure their mid table position creating an excellent point from which to build for next season.
Caldy kept the ball for the first 10 minutes and slowly made ground with simple pick up and drives to take the lead with a penalty for offside kicked by Gavin Roberts. Hull Ionians leveled the score when offside brought an attacking line-out and after Rich Hill had crashed his way through to 15 metres out offside again saw James Ferguson level the scores. Caldy pressure off a home dropped pass saw them cross the line but held up and then gain a second penalty by Gavin Roberts to briefly take the lead. As half time approached a penalty for careless footwork by the Caldy scrum half gave Hull Ionians an attacking line out and several quick phases of play created space for James Ferguson to run in the try for his 200^th point of the season, adding the touchline conversion to crown it.
Caldy made a lively start to the second half but could not break a superb defence, their best chance with an overlap wasted by passing into touch, but Hull Ionians then slowly gained the upper hand with young props Adi Longbone and Albert Thundercliffe to the fore earning them joint man of the match awards. Lying on the ball after a shrewd Karl Birch kick through created another attacking line-out and this time the pack patiently drove over the line for Carl Mortimer to deservedly at last claim his first try for the club. Four minutes later Gary Stephenson elusively ran back a poor Caldy clearance kick and after he was tackled high James Ferguson increased the lead with a penalty. With 10 minutes to go a minor fracas on the pitch then perhaps strangely only saw just one yellow card reducing Hull Ionians to 14 men and Caldy finally found space for replacement winger Liam Devaney to score in the corner. Back to full strength more good teamwork that consistently retained the ball saw Caldy offside again and Karl Birch kicked the injury time penalty to make the game safe.