Bulls are lacking one vital thing... quality (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Bulls are lacking one vital thing... quality

7:50am Monday 3rd August 2009

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Bulls 14 Harlequins 22

The pass to no one just when they needed to find a man summed it all up as the Bulls crashed to another demoralising defeat.

Having gone 20-14 down with just five minutes remaining, Bradford did all the hard work by winning the short kick-off and handing themselves a shot at getting straight back into the contest.

But a few tackles later, as they attacked the Harlequins line, Paul Sykes sent out a pass which missed all his team-mates and bobbled harmlessly along to be dived on a by a relieved opponent.

Sykes can’t be blamed. Plenty of his colleagues came up with similar faux-pas in an afternoon short of quality from both sides.

It was easy to see why Harlequins had lost six games on the bounce and Bradford have now only picked up one success in seven outings.

The effort and endeavour was there for the majority but it wasn’t a great advert for Super League and even the most loyal fan won’t be looking forward too excitedly to see the same teams meet up again in London in five days’ time.

Bradford – whose play-off hopes are now officially gone – started off okay and opened their account as early as the eighth minute.

After Matt Gafa was penalised for a high tackle on Glenn Morrison, the Bulls worked up field and finished their set with Sykes slicing a well-weighted grubber through for Semi Tadulala to pick up and twist over.

Paul Deacon couldn’t convert from wide out but it had been an early score they needed.

However, the hosts messed up the restart, as has been the case so many times this season, to halt the chance of building more immediate pressure.

Jamie Langley let Luke Dorn’s kick go over his head and, by the time the loose forward had turned and retrieved the ball, hungry Quins defenders had charged into the in-goal area to force a drop-out.

Fortunately, though, Steve Menzies – back after his swine flu episode – came up with a shuddering hit on Luke Williamson in the next set, the Aussie’s former Manly team-mate coughing up the ball due to the sheer size of the collision.

There were few chances of note for the Bulls though, who couldn’t gain much momentum in a bitty first half.

An Andy Lynch off-load gave Tadulala the chance to open his legs but the winger lacked support, while Chris Melling was forced to scramble to deny Sykes from grounding Dave Halley’s little kick through, but there was not much else happening.

Bradford got to the last tackle fine but struggled to make many yards in the process and then went for poor options at the end.

They got caught between deciding to kick or running the ball and inevitably did neither, Deacon usually being harassed into putting boot to ball or some other player getting caught in possession.

Second rowers Glenn Morrison and Elliott Whitehead both somehow found themselves having to kick and Quins were given the chance to start their sets higher and higher up the field.

The visitors bombed one clear-cut chance when Dorn’s clever kick down the blind side caught Bulls flat-footed. Will Sharp picked up and, despite being tackled by Halley, found Melling motoring up but the Quins full back spilled the pass with a clear 20-metre sprint to the line.

Gafa then thought he had got away following an overlap down the Bulls’ left but Melling’s pass was pulled back for being forward.

Brian McDermott’s men did strike on 27 minutes though. A high tackle from Newton handed them easy field position and, although the Bulls defended their line well, they were exposed far too easily when Quins shifted it wide on the last tackle – Orr, Luke Gale, Dorn and David Howell fashioning the space for Gafa to score.

Orr failed with the conversion attempt but didn’t miss when his side got over again in the restart set.

The Bulls gave away another cheap penalty to help Quins up field and needed Langley to pull off a great tackle on Howell as he broke though.

It mattered little though as Gale put Ryan Esders through a massive hole as Bulls failed to defend their line on the next play.

It had been a lacklustre first period low on quality from both sides, something Halley tried to change soon after the restart.

He showed great footwork to skip through after picking up Deacon’s charged down kick. The full back pinned his ears back and went for the corner but Melling just managed to get him into touch.

Jon Wells and Melling then both left a Newton kick to each other, allowing the Bulls to force a drop-out and, after Danny Ward had clobbered Tadulala with a high tackle, Michael Worrincy thought he had barged over against his former club.

The second rower was just held up by Louie McCarthy-Scarsbrook though as he bumped off the first defender and twisted for the line and Sykes wasted another shot with a poor pass out wide. Newton then dummied his way through and tried getting Worrincy away but the pass was never on and the forward spilled it to let Quins off again.

Glenn Morrison wasted another chance trying to force a pass out wide but they did finally get their second try following top work from Newton.

The hooker latched onto a great off-load out of a heavy tackle by Lynch and – although Langley was brought down – Newton weaved across the line at the next play and found Sykes cutting back in on the angle, the stand-off breaking Quins and going over.

The try-scorer then turned provider as Sykes broke through the middle from deep on the hour mark.

He found half-back partner Deacon in support and the skipper handed onto Chris Nero, who finished off the sweeping move.

Deacon couldn’t convert but at 14-10 they should have pushed on to win the contest.

They didn’t. More lack of discipline saw them concede again. Deacon tried an ambitious inside pass which only found a Quins pair of hands and then the captain compounded his error by lying on in the tackle.

Soon after, Dorn showed him how it is done with a perfect inside pass that dissected the Bulls all too easily and allowed Howell to race over. Orr’s conversion put them 16-14 up.

The Bulls forced another drop-out as they tried to get back in front, only for Tadulala to let the kick bounce into touch thinking it was going straight out.

Halley was held up trying to burrow over from dummy half but from Deacon’s crossfield kick, Quins broke away to score.

Melling picked up and beat Langley’s poor attempted tackle to set off and Sykes was also guilty of a weak effort.

Halley got back just as Melling got into the Bulls half but the Quins No 1 brushed him off too to find Howell, who surged over.

The Bulls won back the ball from that short kick-off but then Sykes wasted the possession and Quins made sure with the final kick of the game as Orr slotted over a penalty in front of the posts.

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