How Hull secured home advantage in their promotion playoff

Hull secured maximum points at Rossendale, but had to withstand a furious late comeback from their hosts
who never gave up and who were terrier-like at the breakdown especially in the second half.
The home side started well and retained possession but made little headway against Hull’s solid defence.
Hull scored first through a penalty kicked by off-half Steve Johnson after six minutes but Rossendale took the lead four minutes later when winger Jack Wilkinson went in for a well-worked try converted by centre Jack Ward.
A good catch and drive try by Hull after eighteen minutes was credited to prop Mike Jobling to see Hull lead by a point.
Hull were continualy punching through the home sides defence but the clinical edge required to convert the pressure into tries seemed to elude them.
In the twenty eighth minute Hull released full back Lee Birch who sidestepped his way to the line taking three defenders with him to score
Hull’ s second try with Johnson adding a touchline conversion.
A late Jack Ward penalty for Rossendale saw Hull with a slender 15-10 lead at half-time.
The second period saw Rossendale get to within two points of Hull through a Jack Ward penalty and the alarm bells were sounding for Hull.
Hull were consistently outscrummaging the home side and after spurning a couple of scoring opportunties Hull’s Stephen Hihetah bludgeoned his way over for a try near the posts after sixty ninutes which Stephen Johnson converted.
A further Jack Ward penalty for Rossendale was quickly followed by a superb try under the posts for Hull’s second row man Liam Regardsoe .
Stephen Johsons conversion seeing Hull lead 29 16..
With Hull starting to dominate the game a try by substitue full back Tomasi Tanumi converted by Johnson
after seventy two minutes seemed to put the game beyond Rossendale.
With just five minutes remaining the home side sprang to life and two tries and one conversion in the space of three minutes saw them back in the game .
A late Stephen Johnson penalty killed off the revival and Hull were victors once again with a five point haul and time to consider a Yorkshire Cup Final next Wednesday and a promotion play off game on one of the next two Saturdays.

Richard Gore