The Saxons kept their own promotion campaign very much alive, but another last-gasp win for Hull Ionians means they must wait another week at least to discover if they have secured automatic promotion or face the winner-takes-all shootout of a play-off game in May.

Having elected to play the first half up the slope with a stiff breeze on their backs, the Saxons were quickly onto the scoreboard when Jamie Hearn slotted a 3rd minute penalty. A determined home defence and the odd handling error resulted in a 20 minute stalemate that was finally broken when a kickable penalty was declined for a catch & drive following a kick to the corner, Will Hurrell making the initial break as the ball was spun wide before Ben Hughes crashed over wide out.

The Saxons pack got to work in the scrum, driving their opponents back remorselessly to provide a wealth of quality ball for the backs. After a move that used the full width of the pitch Ben Barkley was the next to score when he spotted a gap between two out-of-position tight forwards, running a neat angle to take Pete White’s scoring pass. Hearn converted but with the halftime score just 15-0 there was still plenty to do as the Saxons took the slope advantage.

Tom Jarvis was adjudged to have been held up when driven over Westoe’s line in a maul, but the hosts conceded a free kick from a subsequent 5m scrum and it was the Saxons’ back row that reacted quickest. Nigel Mukarati’s quick tap to Ejike Uzoigwe saw the ball recycled for James Rodley whose perfectly timed run saw him score virtually unchallenged. Sione Tu’ipolotu then secured the bonus point try, spotting a mismatch and running an arc to round tiring Westoe tight forwards.

Good defensive mauling by the Saxons’ pack held up a rare Westoe foray into their 22, Uzoigwe’s chase and recovery of a clearance kick then setting up a sequence of phases that ended with Will Hurrell blasting through another large hole in the tiring defences.

Straight from the restart brother Robbie was lurking in support on the left wing to round off a move by scoring under the posts. And replacement Gary Dipple had barely been on the pitch 5 minutes when he sidestepped through the line and wrongfooted the cover for another converted try.

Good defensive work by Barkley then won a turnover that was worked right to Nathan Bressington whose chip chase forced an attacking lineout deep in Westoe’s 22, Uzoigwe taking a scoring pass from Stewart Pearl as the defenders were sucked in to defend a catch and drive.

Westoe weren’t finished though and in the dying stages forced the Saxons to work hard defending their goal line. With time on the clock expired a loose Westoe pass was scooped up by Tom Jarvis who raced the length of the pitch untouched only to knock-on his grounding attempt.

Director of Rugby Neil Mitchell commented “A good performance today, we haven’t won on road for a while and were against opponents who had everything to play for. We adopted a controlled style up the slope, playing off our set piece strengths, Westoe have showed some good form recently but the floodgates opened 2nd half and we nilled them. There is still work to be done mind, we need to deliver the same quality of performance next week against a Bees side who will be looking to spoil the party. If we deliver then it’s in the lap of the gods. There were good performances across the board but my Man of the Match was Ben Barkley who scored an excellent try and was back to his best today”.

The Saxons remain 5 league points ahead of Hull Ionians who have both a game in hand and more wins. Their remaining game is at home to Birmingham-Solihull Bees on April 27th, a bonus point win is needed to keep the pressure on Ionians who will secure the title and automatic promotion spot if they can record bonus point wins against Sheffield Tigers (away, Apr 27th) and Caldy (home, May 4th). If they succeed it would condemn the Saxons to a play-off game in May.