Jamie Hearn was first to cross the goal line, scoring and then converting a try created by Pete White’s crossfield switch with centre Dan Thompson who was making his first start.
They struck again from the restart, Robbie Hurrell’s catch setting up a driving maul that drew in Hull’s forwards before Ben Barkley blasted through the defensive line. The ball was recycled quickly to Nigel Mukarati who was held up but able to pass off the floor to Nile Dacres who powered over from short range.
With Hull opting not to commit numbers to the breakdowns it was another 20 minutes before the Saxons broke down their defences again, forcing a scrum penalty that was kicked to the corner. Mike Hill was tackled just short of the line but the ball was recycled well through phases, the defence eventually running out of numbers as Mark George crashed through on a pick & drive.
Hull spilt the ball in the Saxons’ midfield, it was worked left to Hearn who evaded several defenders before linking with Dacres. Quick ruck ball was moved right to Barkley who spotted a mismatch in the defensive line and secured another clean line break before putting centurion Jarvis through.
Half time 28-0.
A Hurrell lineout take near halfway was worked to Stef Shillingford whose drive took out several defenders. Gary Dipple spotted a gap in the fringe defences and darted through, finding White in support whose perfectly weighted long pass found Hearn free on the left.
With the visitors’ attacks making little impact their scrum started to cough up penalties, gifting territory & possession. A kick for the corner produced the next score when Ben Hughes barged over from short range after another well worked lineout drill.
A set move saw replacement Tu’ipolotu feed scrum ball to Jarvis whose inside pass found Dipple arriving at pace. He scorched through the line defence, swerving round one defender and handing off another to secure a superb 60m individual try.
The final score was another long-range effort, scrum ball secured in the Saxons’ half worked down the backline for Hearn to outpace his opponent and link back inside to the unmarked Shillingford. Full time 54-0.
Coach Mike Umaga commented ‘We’ve got some work to do still, but it was key for us today to have a set piece that was going that forward. There was a positive change of mindset out there, the guys picked themselves up after being understandably disappointed by a poor performance last week. There were several star performers – Dan Thompson coming in showed power and some deft touches while Ben Hughes’ class and experience are a huge asset to us, but my man of the match was Nile Dacres who again did really well despite a positional switch to the back row’.
Scorers :
Tries - Jamie Hearn (2), Nile Dacres, Mark George, Tom Jarvis, Ben Hughes, Gary Dipple, Stefan Shillingford.
Conversions - Jamie Hearn (7)