Wharfedale 44 Hull Ionians 15

Wharfedale reached the final of the Yorkshire Cup despite a brave performance by Hull Ionians, who kept in touch with the Greens until the last 15 minutes when they scored 21 unanswered points.

Both sides reorganised their squads, with Dale bringing players from the second team. Notably they included Will Bell at No 10, who proved that he could run the line and control the ball at this level, Chris Howick and Thomas White, who both contributed to a fine win.

Wharfedale took the lead after three minutes with a superbly constructed try involving both forwards and backs. Adam Howard touched down but Tom Barrett could not convert.

Hull came back with a catch and drive forcing Joe Torrington over and taking the lead with an accurate conversion from Isaac Green.

Two Barrett penalties against one from Green gave Dale the edge 11-10.

A fine solo effort from Bell and a conversion from Barrett extended Wharfedale’s lead to 18-10 at half time.

Wharfedale were into action early in the second half and were exerting pressure on Hull. Two Hull players were sin binned and Rob Baldwin capitalised with a driven scrum.

Hull, down to 13 men, came back and had their best period of the game, spending most of the penalty time in Wharfedale’s half and scoring a try!

Only when Hull had 15 men back on the pitch did Dale start to dominate, with tries from Joseph Donkin, Barrett and Dan Stockdale. Barrett added the extras to all three, giving Wharfedale a well-deserved win.