Scunthorpe A 37  Hull Ionians Hawks  15

The Hawks mediocre season continued as a lack lustre performance saw them crash to a Scunthorpe side that they have scored 184 against in their last three encounters. The performance left the Team Managers drinking long and hard into the night trying to put their finger on where the spirit of last year has gone. In their defence the Hawks can point to the fact that they lost all of their outside backs to either promotion or unavailability. This led to stalwart Chris Walker filling in at centre with back row Tim Wilson on one wing and university scrum half Liam Fahty on the other wing. Also the prop situation reached crisis point leaving the Hawks having to borrow a spare Scunthorpe prop to make up the scrum. One bit of good news is that last years ever present Kyle Hall’s eye injury has cleared up and he will be available again next week.
The Scunthorpe pack was as expected large and enthusiastic and ran hard and straight to score two early tries before Steve Barton finished off a rare Hawks attack to give them some hope. However, Scunthorpe opened the second half with another two tries before the Hawks had their best period of the match. First centre Luke Thundercliffe showed a glimpse of his promise as he made a clear break through the centre before rounding the full back to score in the corner. Then man of the match back row James Liddle got justified reward for his prodigious work effort. A well worked line out move saw him peel down the narrow side from near the half way. A combination of power and a surprising amount of pace saw him beat three would be tacklers to score in the same corner.
At 27-15 the Hawks sniffed a half chance and started playing high risk rugby from their own 22. A lack of precision though allowed the Scunthorpe defence to thwart the attacks and turn over ball to score two late tries to give them a deserved victory they undoubtedly enjoyed.
A major improvement is needed this week as they travel to face an ever improving Ilkley team in a league fixture.