But Jamie Hearn's 80th minute penalty attempt flew wide, leaving the Saxons precious little reward for their early forward dominance.

With Ionians' outside half Chris Reakes missing 4 from 6 attempts on goal the Saxons could have been dead & buried before a late fightback secured a debut try for replacement loosehead Dale Garner that Jamie Hearn converted to bring them back within a point. A last minute penalty conceded by the hosts in their 22 for a scrum offence set up the dramatic finale to what was a keenly contested game that Ionians had only led from the 53rd minute.

Hearn opened the scoring with a penalty, following which the Saxons pack set up camp in Ionians 22 and forced three successive penalties from the Ionians scrum. Referee Wayne Falla finally ran out of patience with the hosts and awarded a penalty try on the quarter hour. Ionians hit back when a speculative wide pass from Reakes bounced kindly for lively fullback Mike Bateman who crossed for a converted try. With winger Nathan Bressington forced off through injury Caolan Ryan slotted in at fullback as the Saxons pack re-asserted themselves and secured a further scrum penalty that Hearn knocked through the posts. Ionians’ loosehead then got a 10 minute spell in the sinbin for a further misdemeanour, but the man advantage seemed to galvanise the home side and they ended the half on the ascendancy though with no further score at 7-13.

A missed Saxons touch kick early in the 2nd half gifted Bateman too much time and space, his neat offload setting up Ionians 2nd try in the left corner as the cover failed to deal with the threat. Hearn added another penalty but Ionians were starting to exert pressure and it was their scrum half who scrambled over to take the lead following a set of phases in the Saxons 22. Ionians secured the try bonus point when a Saxons defender fell off Bateman in the tackle, leaving the Saxons looking down the barrel of a 5 point defeat, but Garner’s late try secured the losing bonus point and set up the thrilling climax.

Director of Rugby Neil Mitchell commented “That was a very disappointing result given the hard work we’d done early on to dominate them up front, we’d completely nullified the confidence that comes from playing at home. We needed to consolidate early on in the 2nd half but we failed to do so, making some poor decisions with ball in hand and giving away some very loose tries. Ultimately we paid the price, Ionians are now in the driving seat but have to bear all the pressure that comes with it. They have some hard games to come, and while our run in is by no means easy will be targeting all 15 of the league points that are there to be won, they are going to have to fight all the way”.

The league title is now Ionians' to lose, and they will win it if they secure at least 19 of the 20 remaining league points available to them. The Saxons remain hard on their heels however but given Ionians' superior win tally need them to drop at least 2 league points in their remaining 4 games.

Scorers :
Tries : Penalty try (16min), Dale Garner (73min)
Conversions : Jamie Hearn (2)
Penalty kicks : Jamie Hearn (2)