CALDY continued to improve their home record by beating Hull Ionians in National Two North on Saturday – and coach Matt Holt has called on his players to carry on the momentum.

In a good all around performance the Caldy players had their work cut out for them against a strong and determined Hull defence. The intensity at the breakdowns was phenomenal and the scrumaging seemed to be about a battle of wills as much as power.

Clashes between these two teams have been closely fought and titanic in nature and at half-time with the score at 17-13 and it looked like the home crowd was in for another tense afternoon.

Caldy had to fight for every single point and when a mistake was made Hull were there and ready to capitalise on it, as they did when Daniel Smith ran away with an intercepted pass to score under the posts.

In the second half there was a fantastic display of rugby from both the Hull and Caldy backs, but it was the Caldy forwards who stole the show with Jake Lyon and Craig Smithson claiming one try apiece to make the final score 34-23.

This Saturday the first team travel to Kendal, who managed to beat Caldy 35-12 on their visit to the Lakes last season – however, in the return fixture the home side returned the favour 31-20.

Holt said: “We’re looking forward to the game, we’re going to want to keep the momentum going because we’re keen to maintain our 100% away record.”

“It is also going to be important for us to win tbecause we then have a weekend off before the next home game against Macclesfield which is going to be crucial.”

There are some injury questions about Dowridge, Nugent and Arnold, who managed to claim his 11th try of the season, but Holt has his fingers crossed that they’ll be fit for the game – if not they should definitely be back for the Macclesfield game.

This Saturday the second XV will be at home against Stockport while the third team travel to Oswestry.