Hull managed to achieve their objective of securing maximum points against an obdurate Pocklington side as they ran in seven tries but had problems in maintaining the ball in the loose and in finishing off good periods of pressùre.
Pocklington started well enough from the kick off but Hull looked to have got the upper hand when winger Stephen Hihetah scored the first of his three tries after just five minutes when he finished off a period of Hull Pressure touching down in the left hand corner allowing Stephen Johnson to convert wonderfully from wide out.
Hihetah scored again after eleven minutes when he robbed Pocklington of the ball and raced 45 yards to the line.
His third try after 13 minutes was scored after he received the ball near the halfway line and outpaced the defence after good work by Hull full back Lee Birch.
The try was Hihetah’s 27th of the season and established him as Hull’s record holding try scorer after just half of the season.
Pocklington were next to score after 20 minutes when a good driving maul after a lineout saw them get the to the Hull line with second row man Tom Peters being credited with the try.
Hull were soon able to restore the margin when off half Johnson dummied and sidestepped his way over from 25 yards out to give Hull a bonus point and then he converted his own try to see Hull in the lead 24 points to five.
The visitors refused to cave in and after Hull’s scrum half was yellow carded they had a good spell of pressure near the Hull line that saw them go close a couple of times but it was Hull who scored next when flanker Zak Poole charged down a Pocklington clearance kick and delivered a perfect off load for Hull’s number eight Joe Stafford to score Hull ‘s fifth try after 40 minutes and see them lead 29-7 at half-time.
The second half was looking like it might be a mirror image of the first but when winger Hihetah went off injured after 48 minutes Hull had to rearrange their backline.
It was a well judged chip ahead by off-half Steve Johnson that gave Hull’s pacy winger Mike Adlard space to follow up and collect the ball to score Hull’s sixth try after 64 minutes.
A defensive mix up by Hull allowed Pocklington to string some good passes together and see their hooker Dave Birche score an unconverted try after 75 minutes.
Hull rounded off proceedings when a quick tap penalty saw substitute centre Joe Martin barge his way over with Johson converting to see Hull home 41-12.
Richard Gore
HULL RUGBY UNION FOOTBALL CLUB 