Injured trio add to frustration as Bradford Bulls let slip big lead at Widnes

8:30am Saturday 9th March 2013 in Sport Photograph of the Author By Ross Heppenstall, Bradford Bulls Reporter

Elliott Whitehead’s disappointment shows after the Bulls’ draw at Widnes Elliott Whitehead’s disappointment shows after the Bulls’ draw at Widnes

Francis Cummins faces a nervous wait to discover the extent of the injuries suffered by a trio of his players during last night’s fraught 22-22 draw at Widnes.

The Bulls coach saw his side surrender a 20-4 interval lead as the Vikings fought back from the controversial dismissal of Gareth Hock to level the scores with four minutes remaining.

Referee Robert Hicks sent off Hock for swearing at him in the 30th minute but the Bulls were dominated by Widnes in the second half and also saw Jamie Langley, Chev Walker and Matty Blythe pick up injuries during the match.

A stunned Cummins said: “We had an early blow losing Jamie Langley to a groin injury and then Chev and Matty with ankle injuries. It’s no excuse but it does disrupt you.

“I’m more annoyed with the way we tried to come out with big plays when they had more ball in the second half.

“We didn’t have any field position but I thought the effort from the guys was tremendous because we had some people busted quite early on.

“We’ve had to work really hard but you can’t play without the ball.”

Tries from Elliott Whitehead, Brett Kearney and Matt Diskin put the Bulls in control but the dismissal of Hock proved the game’s turning point.

Although Keith Lulia soon added a fourth try for the visitors, Widnes responded in style and former Bulls winger Patrick Ah Van scored twice and then kicked a late penalty after earlier tries from Rhys Hanbury and Lloyd White.

Cummins said: “This is probably a little awakening for the boys. We had a great win on Sunday at Huddersfield and were very smart – but we weren’t tonight.”

The penalty count went against the Bulls in the second half but Cummins said: “The referee didn’t miss the tackles; he didn’t try and offload when we were in silly positions. We’re not into excuses.”

John Bateman is poised to play in next Sunday’s home clash with Hull KR after scoring a hat-trick and playing 80 minutes in the Academy’s 46-16 win over Widnes.

The home-grown back-rower looked in excellent physical condition and crossed the line three times during the first half in a fine display by Paul Medley’s side.

Comments(19)

Tricky Dicky says...
9:06am Sat 9 Mar 13

I thought this one could be a banana skin so I look it as a point salvaged rather than a point lost. Credit must go to Widnes in turning round a 20-4 deficit with only 12 men on the park but the Bulls need to have a little more composure about them. I'm sure that when Mr Gale is fit to resume his marshalling of the troops will provide the steadying influence that was found wanting last night. The synthetic surface was also to Widnes' advantage but the Bulls are currently in third spot in the table and, with the old enemy down the road getting a hiding, it wasn't that bad a night after all!

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Solomon Grundy says...
9:28am Sat 9 Mar 13

Widnes are clearly no pushovers anymore so it's an away point and not to be sniffed at. Sounds like we need Gale, Bateman, Purtell back son though. Our squad is too small.

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NORTHER1964 says...
9:37am Sat 9 Mar 13

Srry but thts no big loss losing Langers and Waker. We can replace them easy enough but Matty is playing well and this could make a big hole in the centres.

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BCFC1234 says...
9:58am Sat 9 Mar 13

NORTHER1964 wrote:
Srry but thts no big loss losing Langers and Waker. We can replace them easy enough but Matty is playing well and this could make a big hole in the centres.
Not sure which team you have been watching this season if you think Langley and Walker easily replaced.

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Prycey says...
10:20am Sat 9 Mar 13

Walker has been playing better than I have seen him playing years at loose forward. As for Langley, he may not be the best ball playing forward but coming off the bench he has given us that 100% reliability in the middle. I came away thinking we did well to hang on to a point. It was like an engine running out of fuel in the second half. They were completely out of it and more minutes would have lost us the game. 3 points from the last two away games is not bad though. Hope Gale is back soon as Addey can go into the back row. Could do with Sibbit for a couple of months off the bench till the Warrington prop is fit again. We are walking on a tight rope with such a small squad and it may hit us hard very soon. The three injured last night may play next week but how fit will they really be? The big disappointment last night was Sammut going missing in the second half. This is his weakness at times.

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bullybullman says...
10:53am Sat 9 Mar 13

NORTHER1964 wrote:
Srry but thts no big loss losing Langers and Waker. We can replace them easy enough but Matty is playing well and this could make a big hole in the centres.
Are you for real ? Langley scored the first try & was the Lynch pin in defense. Walker has been massive all season ! do you watch the games ?

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mines a pint says...
10:54am Sat 9 Mar 13

BCFC1234 wrote:
NORTHER1964 wrote:
Srry but thts no big loss losing Langers and Waker. We can replace them easy enough but Matty is playing well and this could make a big hole in the centres.
Not sure which team you have been watching this season if you think Langley and Walker easily replaced.
Totally agree BCFC1234

It has only taken 6 rounds of the 2013 season for the Langley knockers to crawl out from under their stones expect more to follow

Don't know who they have been watching to come up with such a statement perhaps that's the point just another arm chair / pub fan who does not actually attend the games

Langley has been solid for us for over 10 years & as Prycey says "he may not be the best ball playing forward but coming off the bench he has given us that 100% reliability in the middle"

Always gives 100% and as I have said for many seasons we are a better team when he is on the field than when he is not

Only thing I would say is I would rather see him at 2nd row as we do loose a bit of impact when he is used at prop but with the size of the squad we dont have many options so credit to the man for rolling his sleeves up and getting stuck in

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bartsbull says...
11:24am Sat 9 Mar 13

Well done to the lads yes we should have won the game

But we gained a point away the pitch looked terible .
Time it was ripped up and some grass put down far to many injuries on this surface

Yes some players were disiapointed not winning but there are young players who will learn from the mistakes they made coyb Omar you have done a great job and long may you continue

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Will, Huddersfield says...
12:30pm Sat 9 Mar 13

This was not a point gained. It was a point thrown away. After the crushing victory over the Giants and a solid first half performance I fully expected the Bulls to run rampant in the second half against a disjointed Widnes outfit who had lost their best forward sent off and were sixteen points down. To say the Bulls then imploded is putting it mildly. Of course the injuries did not help and the pitch is a shocker but Franny is right. Mindless rugby, poor decsion making and some marshmellow defending let a 'beaten' team back into the game. Losing Langley was a blow. We bady need some of our injured players back to add steel particularly in the pack. Another weird refereeing peformance . Where do Red Hall find them?

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mumbyfan says...
3:21pm Sat 9 Mar 13

Prycey wrote:
Walker has been playing better than I have seen him playing years at loose forward. As for Langley, he may not be the best ball playing forward but coming off the bench he has given us that 100% reliability in the middle. I came away thinking we did well to hang on to a point. It was like an engine running out of fuel in the second half. They were completely out of it and more minutes would have lost us the game. 3 points from the last two away games is not bad though. Hope Gale is back soon as Addey can go into the back row. Could do with Sibbit for a couple of months off the bench till the Warrington prop is fit again. We are walking on a tight rope with such a small squad and it may hit us hard very soon. The three injured last night may play next week but how fit will they really be? The big disappointment last night was Sammut going missing in the second half. This is his weakness at times.
Half backs always go missing if their pack is getting steamrollered....

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mumbyfan says...
3:23pm Sat 9 Mar 13

Is it only me that notices that are performances are significantly better when Diskin isn't on the field...

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t'old man says...
7:02pm Sat 9 Mar 13

o.k it may be early days but if anyone had said we would be in 3rd place after 6 games they would have been whisked away by the men in white jackets !!!... any points we get either home or away are going to have to be fought for we aren't the side of a few years back when we could pencil in the games we would definitely win....I know a 20 - 4 lead should have led to a win especially against 12 men but its not the first time a side has had a player sent off and raised their game afterwards....if we carry on picking up the points here and there we should be in the play offs and from there on its knock-out rugby and anything can happen, lets not forget only 6 months ago we were on the verge of not having a club at all....

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NORTHER1964 says...
8:20pm Sat 9 Mar 13

Langley is not played in the correct position thats why we won't really miss him. He is never a loose forward so long as he's got a hole in his ar...ole. Walker has never been the player he was when he played for Leeds.

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Adeybull says...
9:26pm Sat 9 Mar 13

t'old man wrote:
o.k it may be early days but if anyone had said we would be in 3rd place after 6 games they would have been whisked away by the men in white jackets !!!... any points we get either home or away are going to have to be fought for we aren't the side of a few years back when we could pencil in the games we would definitely win....I know a 20 - 4 lead should have led to a win especially against 12 men but its not the first time a side has had a player sent off and raised their game afterwards....if we carry on picking up the points here and there we should be in the play offs and from there on its knock-out rugby and anything can happen, lets not forget only 6 months ago we were on the verge of not having a club at all....
Yup. Fine with that. Doubt we'll be in third for long, and its so tight that we could easily drop out of the 8 just as quickly, but the fact that we can mix it with the "fancied" teams at all is more than most of us could have hoped for a few months ago?

And yes, anyone remember what 12 angry men did to the Pies in1996...?

Don't under-rate Widnes generally either; other sides will do so at their peril this year, especially at home on their plastic pitch. They'll finish a long way from the foot of the table.

Can't understand the criticism of Walker - he's been solid and effective all season so far, and is playing like it really means something to him. As, indeed, has Langley. Two guys who clearly WANT to be here.

Something wrong with this thread! Its proper rugbyt talk, because the slime moulds have not crawled out from under their bridges yet. Sadly only a matter of time, I guess.

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Glassjaw says...
10:31am Sun 10 Mar 13

bullybullman wrote:
NORTHER1964 wrote: Srry but thts no big loss losing Langers and Waker. We can replace them easy enough but Matty is playing well and this could make a big hole in the centres.
Are you for real ? Langley scored the first try & was the Lynch pin in defense. Walker has been massive all season ! do you watch the games ?
I thought Whitehead got the 1st try at widnes.

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billybobbull says...
12:52pm Sun 10 Mar 13

I wasn't at Widnes and thought it sounds like the lads ran out of steam after last weeks titanic effort. Maybe it's a point lost, but more importantly it is a learning opportunity. Peer Fox always said, 'tha learns more more a loss than a win', and I have always worked on that theory.
Let's thank ourselves lucky we have a club, a team, we have a great young coach, a good mix of youth and experience and we ARE 3RD in the league with a better points difference than nearly every other team except Wigan and Huddersfield (the leaders who we stuffed last week).
I think that is cause for optimism not pessism.

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flashdonut says...
9:57am Mon 11 Mar 13

Glad to see the majority of comments are positive. We are 3rd in the league. 3rd I tell thee!!! That's nose bleed territory it is that high. Every realistic fan would have taken three points from our last two away games.
.
Bring on HKR!!!

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axlef1963 says...
9:13pm Mon 11 Mar 13

seems like an age since we were this high up the league ladder.considsering weve been playing without our recognised scrum half got to take my hat off to the lads.also i think the power that be need to have a close look at the articial pitch at widnes after watching the game on sky last week and the injuries picked up then and this week we have three players crocked,plus cuts to others the problems seem to be mounting with this surface

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billybobbull says...
12:55am Tue 12 Mar 13

To be Fair to Widnes, it seems we tired and they did not. The pitch is the same for both teams in terms of injuries, so no excuses needed there.

Maybe we should enjoy the 7 points we have and thank lucky Stars. Immense will come and go. It's not the pitch, it's the man's game we love.

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