An ugly victory

But judging by Sunday's performance against Warrington, it looks like the winning-without-playing-well part of the United game the Bulls have gone for.

In what can only be described as a men against boys affair, the Bulls over-ran a weak Warrington side by a decent margin.

But in failing to destroy the whimpering Wolves, it was like Man United beating Southampton 2-1, with only poor finishing and a lack of motivation preventing it from being 8-0.

It is early in the season and it showed, as the Bulls looked a little rusty in the final third and "bombed", as Michael Withers put it, a few good chances.

To be fair to the Wolves, whose mass of travelling fans easily out-sung the disappointingly quiet home support, they have improved since last season.

But then again it would have been difficult not to have moved on from the atrocious, and apparently hungover, side that were trounced 84-12 at Wilderspool back in September.

Man-for-man they were smaller, less talented and less confident, and it showed.

There will probably be many games like this for the Bulls this season. Games where the World Champions are far superior, losing only by their own failure rather than the strength of the opposition and where the result, if not the scoreline, is decided before kick-off. The Bulls are undoubtedly a very strong side, and Paul Deacon's statement that they are unbeatable in this league on the day is probably correct.

But they will have to play at a whole different level if they are to triumph over the stronger sides in the league.

This performance was substantially below that of the Wigan win last week, but that can be put down in no small measure to the quality of the opposition and the quality of the pitch.

It was an "ugly game of rugby" in the opinion of Big Joe Vagana, who lived up to his nickname with an awesome display of tackling.

As with their performance last week, where they overturned a substantial first-half deficit to snatch victory over Halifax, the Wolves failed to perform in the opening 40 minutes.

The bite and snarl was sadly lacking and they were mauled, gored and over-run by a rampant Bulls who made the most of their opportunities early on.

At times the visitors defended like virgins confronted by a streaker as the Bradford forwards took turns breaking tackles and making substantial in-roads up the pitch.

Huge tackles from the likes of Joe Vagana and Paul Anderson, who seems to be the reason the term 'impact player' was invented, ensured the Wolves achieved a low completion rate.

On those rare occasions they did make it to six tackles, consistently poor kicking from the slight Lee Briers ensured Bulls always began their possession with good field position. And this combination of powerful defence and weak opposition ensured the backs were given plenty of opportunity to show off on the Valley Parade before it deteriorated.

Tevita Vaikona, chosen as man of the match by the fans in a new text message vote, did the most damage in the first-half, scoring one and setting up a couple of others.

His performance, along with that of Michael Withers, who recovered sufficiently to keep Paul Sykes on the bench, helped the scoreboard tick along as the Bulls racked up 26 first-half points without a hint of reply.

Testimony to the dominance of the Bulls side, they achieved this one-sided first-half display without three key players and with those who were playing most definitely not firing on all cylinders.

Defensively, there were strong performances from everyone, but on the attacking side Robbie Paul was surprisingly quiet as was Jimmy Lowes. But, then again, the Bulls were moving along just fine without any sparkling attacking contribution from the centre of the park.

Daniel Gartner began the scoring after Lowes put him through in the opening five minutes and the Bulls began to show their extra pace and class with full-back Withers skipping away from three defenders for a fine solo try after 16 minutes.

Vaikona followed the same route four minutes later, and it became 20-0 after 27 minutes when Brandon

Costin deservedly grabbed his first try for the club.

Man of the match Anderson dispensed with the niceties of dummies, side-steps and pace, deciding to go for the more direct route for his score.

Paul handed him the ball ten yards out and he just blitzed his way through, carrying three defenders along the way.

He, and his consort of defenders, banged into the post as he crossed the line, and the unfortunate structure was still vibrating when Deacon smashed his kick through to make it 26-0 with nine minutes remaining in the half.

After the interval it was a far less impressive affair for the Bulls as the Wolves staged their usual comeback.

The heavy and slippy surface, which was literally turning Vaikona into a flying winger, did little for the game and led to a 12-12 second-half score.

Warrington cut the deficit within three minutes of the resumption when substitute forward Paul Wood touched down after a kick to the line by Lee Briers, who added the goal.

Both Brian Noble and Michael Withers were convinced the full-back grounded the ball before Wood arrived, but the Bulls can afford to be generous at this stage of the season.

Warrington lacked inspiration in attack, and Bradford soon re-established dominance with their powerful pack in full control.

Winger Nathan McEvoy, standing in for the hamstrung Volcano, rounded off a powerful charge by impressive replacement Stuart Fielden to score after 55 minutes, and his centre partner Lee Gilmour was next to cross after more strong forward pressure to make it 38-6 on the hour-mark.

Substitute Mark Gleeson found a rare hole in the home defence to slip between the posts for a try after 73 minutes, and Briers tagged on the goal.

The Bulls were content, if not quite happy afterwards.

"It was an ugly game of rugby but we did enough to win," said the gentle giant Vagana.

"It wasn't the best playing surface and that didn't help things, but it is only early in the season and we got the two points we wanted.

"We have a lot more in store, wait and see."