Hull's Head Coach, John Widdowson, whilst a little disappointed not to have come away with a win, pointed to the determination of the Hull side who took on a young, exuberant Leicester side who hammered Kendal a week ago yet were unable to make their home advantage count to the full against Hull.
He said Hull need to work to elminate the advantage many sides naturally feel when at home and he pointed out Hull have now gone unbeaten in their last four games and are easing their way up the League Table.
A game that seemed to be going Hull's way in the early part of the game when their forwards were dominating almost slipped away in the second half. Leicester missed a last minute penalty kick to leave the scores tied at 19 all.
Hull's early forward pressure almost saw them take the lead after 9 minutes when a seemingly unstoppable catch and drive was illegally brought to ground and Leicester's second row Thomas was yellow carded for his efforts. With Leicester a man short it was only a matter of time before Hull worked another position and Ollie Cook was credited with the try following a catch and drive straight from the coaching manual. James Cameron's fine conversion giving Hull a seven point lead.
Leicester were always trying to move the ball but as their efforts were halted by a determined defence there seemed little to concern Hull when they camped on the Leicester line and another catch and drive saw Chris Murphy credited with the try and Cameron's conversion gave Hull a comfortable looking lead. However, with the first half drawing to a close one of Leicester's sweeping attacks was illegally halted and a quick trap penalty saw their full-back, Gareth Collins, stroll in unopposed and Boden, the Leiceter fly-half, added the conversion to give the half-time scoreline a very different complexion Hull 14 7 Leicester Lions.
Early in the second half Leicester's adventurous back play came unstuck when a loose pass was snapped up by Hull's pacy full-back, Kirk, who raced over from fifty yards out and with Cameron adding the 2 points for the conversion Hull seemed to have reclaimed the initiative, with the scoreline at 19-7 in Hull's favour. Leicester had other ideas and mounted a series of attacks resulting in their winger Marston forcing his way over after eight minutes of the second half. Boden missed the conversion and Hull were still able to look at a lead that would take two scores to overhaul but Leicester kept on probing Hull's defences and despite a great tackling stint by the whole side the pressure told in the end when Leicester's No. 8 sliced through to score near the posts giving Boden the easiest of tasks to tie the scores.
Boden's long-range penalty miss in the last minute left the scores tied at 19 all which most agreed was a fair reflection of a keenly contested match where two yellow cards for either side were more a reflection of the referee's vigilance than any malice.
Report by Richard Gore