Hoppers lost on the road again in a frustrating contest in which the final score does not reflect the overall performance. There was plenty of commitment on display from both sides but there were also a catalogue of errors that disrupted the flow of the game.
The opening 15 minutes was a bit of a stalemate with both defences standing strong and able to cancel out the opposing attack. Hoppers were looking comfortable and managed to turn the ball over on a number of occasions and were able to use the wind to their advantage to control territory. They took with lead midway through the half with fly half Nick Smith’s sweetly struck penalty after the host were guilty of playing the ball on the ground.
Smith was involved in most of Hoppers good work in the first half and just a couple of minutes later a good looking chip and chase was only thwarted when he was pulled back illegally inside the 22, Hoppers took the line out but were held up just short from the catch and drive.
Just before the half hour mark things started to unravel, Hoppers were reduced to 14 men when prop John Young was shown a yellow card for killing the ball only a couple of metre’s short of the line, however, Young did not appear to be the guilty player.
Ionians took the lead moments after, choosing to go for a line out and as the driving maul was being set up Danny Hague peeled off the side and showed good strength to power over. The hosts made full use of the man advantage and extended their lead in fortunate circumstances. After winning possession Ionians set about on a good looking attack and got up to the Hoppers 22, but when the ball was spun out to the wing, everyone apart from the officials saw the ball knocked on but Stephen Slingsby was allowed to play on and score by the posts. James Ferguson added the extras to take the hosts into the break with a 12-3 lead.
The second half got off to its worst possible start when James Greene intercepted an offload on half way and set off towards the line, while he was stopped short by a good tackle he offloaded to Ferguson who touched down for Ionians third try.
Hoppers showed great commitment and were unlucky not to add to their score, Marc Balshaw bravely charged down a kick in goal and Tom Hughes was just short of the line after slicing through the defence only to be stopped by a great covering tackle.
Ionians wrapped up the game and the bonus point when Slingsby got his second try; the winger was the extra man as the host used a nice line out move to put Hague into space. They even had one more in them when they turned over ball in midfield and this time Oli Marns set up Ferguson to round off the scoring.
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