Hull continued their habitual awful start to games once again. Darlington secured possession from their own kick off and opened the scoring with barely two minutes played. Hull responded with a Reece Dean penalty only for Darlington to reciprocate with a penalty to make the score 8-3 after 15 minutes.
Hull’s poor set piece play gave Darlington confidence. Their forwards started winning the collisions and it didn’t take long for them to drive over from close range for their second try. Dean then reduced the deficit with another penalty. Darlington crossed the whitewash again for an unconverted try after 33 minutes to lead 20-6 at the interval.
Darlington started the second half strongly, and got their bonus point try soon after the restart. Hull then started to play some good rugby. The forwards got the team to Darlington’s ’22’, where the backs moved the ball across the width of the pitch for Mike Adlard to score in the corner.
Darlington, however, scored two further converted tries to lead 39-11. With 10 minutes remaining, Adlard made an excellent break from halfway and fed the ball to debutant Harrison Astley to score.
Kym Russell, on as a replacement, impressed again with some strong carries. The highlights were few and far between in a disappointing performance. Darlington has the last say with two more converted tries to make the final score 53-16.
HULL RUGBY UNION FOOTBALL CLUB 