7:40am Monday 8th June 2009
By Dave Craven
Bulls 36 Wakefield 22
It was far from perfect, and they have Danny Brough to thank in many ways, but the Bulls picked up a much-needed win to hopefully instil confidence for the second half of their Super League season.
When you have only won once at home it’s difficult to be too critical when a victory does finally come your way, and Bradford did produce plenty of quality in seeing off Wakefield yesterday.
But ultimately it finished five tries apiece and, if Brough hadn’t had such an off day with boot – the Scotland captain kicked just one from his five attempts – Steve McNamara’s men would have been staring at another defeat.
Paul Deacon nailed eight from eight, including two penalties at the death to stave off any thought of another Bulls collapse, and his side can now look ahead in positive mood after their first double of the season – following the 32-16 win over the Wildcats in Edinburgh.
There was plenty to cheer the home support, with man-of-the-match Dave Halley delivering an effervescent performance from full back and centre Chris Nero plundering two tries as great reward for his potent surges all afternoon.
Steve Menzies supported as ever to take his season tally into double figures, Andy Lynch and Jamie Langley were immense up front and Ben Jeffries opened up his former side at will at times with some of his passing.
It was the impish stand-off who put Nero stepping over to the line inside the third minute and, with Deacon improving the score and adding a penalty soon after when Sam Burgess was held down, Bradford looked in the mood.
Nick Scruton made his strongest opening to a game for a while with some full-blooded drives and Jeffries and Deacon probed intelligently behind to have Wakefield chasing shadows.
Halley returned the ball well from full back while a clever Jeffries grubber nearly saw Lynch get in under the posts but Matt Blaymire just got to the ball first to concede a drop-out.
Prop Lynch powered through on halfway with a typical burst but he lacked support.
However, it seemed keen Bradford were intent on righting their wrongs of recent weeks.
Even when Terry Newton was bundled into touch naively going down the blindside, it brought the best out of his team-mates.
They went on to show their defensive qualities by holding out Wildcats for three consecutive sets – Olivier Wilkes finally breaking them but spilling Sam Obst’s pass close to the line – and all appeared fine.
But then Sean Gleeson – only in because of an injury to newly-called up England centre Ryan Atkins – stepped up with an amazing hat-trick inside just 14 minutes to expose the Bulls’ falibilities.
Rugged second-row Steve Snitch opened them up down Wakefield’s left and found Blaymire, who put the youngster in.
Paul Sykes then booted the restart straight out but Bradford didn’t let their heads drop and responded with Menzies’ first.
Jeffries created it with a delicate pass to send Langley into space and the Aussie cruised up in support.
The trio repeated the same slick move in the 37th minute to put Menzies over again but by that time Gleeson had struck twice more to level it up at 14-14.
Brough’s hanging kick-off after Menzies’ first caused horrors for Deacon, who turned, scrambled but couldn’t keep hold of the ball, allowing Obst to pick up the pieces.
Brough then all too easily put Gleeson into a hole out wide and he added his sole conversion.
When Newton kicked out on the full from inside his own half it handed Wakefield more easy possession and territory and they once more made the most of it.
Again they attacked Bradford’s right-hand side with Brough putting Blaymire slicing through on a diagonal run, with the full back finding a stunned Gleeson angling back to the whitewash for his treble.
The Bulls’ mistakes kept coming – Craig Kopczak fumbled soon after winning a penalty – while both sides grew frustrated by the actions of whistle-happy referee Thierry Alibert.
The Frenchman awarded 27 penalties in total and the game fell apart in the second half with some of his petty decisions.
Rikki Sheriffe nearly went over in the corner after Deacon fed Menzies with a long pass on the last and the Aussie somehow managed to squeeze out a pass but the Wakefield defence covered.
They used the powerplay again when Jeffries hit Mick Worrincy into a hole but Wildcats held the big second row just short.
It was the visitors who got the first score of the second period and it came cheaply. Brough’s grubber out of dummy half took a slight ricochet to land straight in Snitch’s hands but Sheriffe should still have stopped the forward getting to the whitewash.
Brough missed his conversion attempt again to leave his side still trailing by two and Michael Korkidas spilled for Wakefield in the restart set to hand Bulls an immediate chance to extend that lead.
When John Kear’s men were penalised soon after, quick-thinking Julien Rinaldi tapped and went straight through Jason Demetriou to earn his first try for the club.
Deacon improved and then Nero got his second with a stunning try after the Bulls ripped open the Wildcats down the middle.
Menzies showed to take a drive but then delivered a soft inside pass to the on-rushing Halley, who broke. Menzies supported and found Jeffries, who seemed destined to score under the posts.
A Wakefield man just dragged him down but the stand-off showed great awareness to find Nero, who did complete the job.
Demetriou and Scruton traded blows in the 63rd minute as tempers frayed – probably more down to Alibert’s influence than anything – and that ended with the Wildcats skipper being sin-binned, along with Burgess, who needlessly ran into the melee.
After another dodgy penalty was awarded against Lynch for apparently ripping possession, Brad Drew danced down the right and threw an overhead pass to Scott Grix, who scrambled over in the corner.
Wakefield still had hope at 32-22 and Brough had Bulls fans’ hearts in their mouths when he nearly set up another try immediately after.
His dink over on halfway was collected by Jamie Rooney, who then aimed another kick to the corner.
Blaymire only had to pick up to run in but knocked on under pressure from Deacon.
When Wakefield were penalised for offside at the other end, the skipper settled any nerves with a penalty to make sure their opponents would need to score twice to level.
His next one late on ensured there was no disaster before Menzies came up with a huge hit to rock James Stosic and ruin the visitors’ last hope of a score.
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/trade_directory/