Due to the rain, the famous Rudding Lane drainage, and a Georgians match the day before turning pitch 1 into a potato field, we were relegated to the outer reaches of pitch 3. It wasn't actually as bad as feared, apart from the lack of some white lines (the manager is adding 'pitch markings painter' to his CV as we speak).
The last time we played Ionians was one of the low points of the team's history when we threw away a huge lead to get knocked out of the cup 2 or 3 years ago. Thankfully that didn't happen again. We put on a solid display, weren't afraid of getting stuck in in the forwards despite the size of some of the opposition, and showed some good skills in the backs.
There were two tries in the first 20 minutes, both scored on the right wing after some good line breaks, solid rucking and quick ball (first Rhys and then Cameron). Then we were pretty much camped out in the Hull half, but without scoring again.
After half time we carried on as before, with Evan scoring after about 20 minutes. There was a notable period of solid Harrogate defence which included a yellow card for repeated infringement on the penalty taker, but despite being a man down we held them out to keep the score at 15-0. It all got a bit fractious after that. There was a bit of argy-bargy, including one of the Hull coaches being called over to the ref for a talking to. In the end Hull scored a consolation try just before the final whistle to make the final score 15-7.
So, we are through to the semi-final: Selby away in four weeks time.