13th October 2007 - Hull Ionians Hawks 10  Otley A  43 -  Northern Reserve League

Forget about the score line, this does absolutely no justice to an outstandingly spirited display by a very youthful Hawks side.  Taking on an Otley side full of players with higher level experience including an England counties player the decimated Hawks side made Managers Dave Wilson and Mally Knowles very proud men.

The pack in particular was more than a match for their more experienced opponents.  In fact such was the pressure exerted by Captain Rich Gregerson, Ally Forth and Kyle Hall that Otley eventually called uncontested scrums.  The line out went as well as usual with jumpers Marin Carew and Angelo Irving been hit unerringly by Ally Forth.  The greatest platitudes however go to the back row of Seamus Lewsey, Liam Portz and James Liddle who consistently harried their opponents into turnovers.

The Otley backs were very speedy and strong but scrum half Tom Boyle made a great come back and Rob Owen showed up well at out of position at stand off with centre Danny Waddy and winger Danny Bates running well and tackling superbly.

Otley scored two early tries before the Hawks realised they were good enough to compete with their opponents.  The Hawks replied with some of their best rugby of the season before a speculative kick and a fortunate bounce led to an Otley try giving them a 17 – 0 half time lead.

Most of the second half was an even contest with the Hawks scoring two tries.  Firstly when Angelo Irving drove over a 5 metre penalty the second when quick thinking at a line out gave hooker Ally Forth room to squeeze in at the corner. This brought the score to 22-10 with 10 minutes to go but 3 late converted tries to Otley gave them a very flattering score line.

No man of the match could be selected as there were so many outstanding candidates.  With two or three older heads this team will develop into a team Ionians can be proud of.