Bradford Bulls 74, Workington 6

FANCY a trip to Salford?

A home game with one of the Hull clubs or Wakefield perhaps?

Or maybe even a rematch with Leigh following that tumultuous opening-day defeat?

We will soon discover who the Bulls will face in the Challenge Cup fifth round – and this is where things start to get interesting.

The fifth-round draw takes place on the banks of the River Hull tomorrow evening and the four Super League clubs who finished above the two relegated sides last season enter the competition.

Save for a 20-minute spell midway through the first half yesterday, in which Workington held Bradford at 6-6, there was never much doubt that Jimmy Lowes' men would be one of the balls in the bag.

This was a victory that was predicted and predictable, but much of the first half made uncomfortable viewing for Lowes.

Adrian Purtell's early try, the first of his maiden hat-trick for the club, should have given the Bulls the platform on which to build a commanding lead.

The Australian centre, back in the side after a hamstring strain which forced him to miss last week's win at Batley, touched down in the 14th minute.

Phil Veivers' visitors, who struggled to compete with the Bulls' forwards, nevertheless defended superbly to keep their hosts at bay thereafter.

Their outstanding scrambling defence poured confidence into them and they began to ask some questions of their own in attack.

After going close on three earlier occasions, Workington finally scored in the 26th minute when replacement James Duerden barrelled over the line.

Carl Forber's conversion tied the scores at 6-6 and had Workington dreaming of a famous upset.

The introduction of a man-mountain off the bench did much to restore order and send the match in the Bulls' favour.

Enter Samir Tahraoui.

The Algeria-born prop replaced Paul Clough in the 28th minute and seven minutes later he had scored twice, his first tries for the club, to put the Bulls in total control.

As if to underline Bradford's dominance and how far the pendulum had swung in their favour, skipper Adam Sidlow and Adam Henry added further tries on the stroke of half-time.

Four tries in seven minutes killed off Workington and effectively made it game over by the time the interval hooter sounded.

The second half was one-way traffic as the Bulls rammed home their superiority by scoring eight more tries and 13 in total, Ryan Shaw weighing in with another impressive 30-point haul.

Perspective remains important: Workington play their rugby on a part-time basis and do not have anywhere near the kind of spending power of Bradford.

Moreover, it was their third match in eight days – a huge ask at any level, never mind when coming up against players with Super League quality such as Lee Gaskell.

The Bulls dominated possession and field position from the off, with Harry Siejka and Henry both showing impressive pace, strength and footwork to break the visitors' line only for the final pass to let them down.

Still, it was only going to be a matter of time before the Bulls opened the scoring and it came in the 14th minute when Purtell finished well from close range after Siejka's short pass.

The try followed some fine interplay between Gaskell, Jay Pitts and Jake Mullaney.

Thereafter, the Bulls were left frustrated for the next 20 minutes by a combination of Workington's doggedness and their own struggle to find the right pass.

The Cumbrians grew in belief and Purtell had to be on hand to intercept a pass from Brett Carter after he had broken down the right wing.

Workington continued to probe and second-rower Brett Phillips could not score from close range and then winger Theerapol Ritson failed to ground the ball in the left corner.

Phillips then spurned another decent chance to score from Forber's pass and Danny Williams and Gaskell failed to ground a kick before Workington finally crossed in the 26th minute when Duerden squeezed under the posts from Graeme Mattinson's pass.

It was no more than the Cumbrians deserved, although Duerden collided with the posts in the act of scoring and was forced to depart.

Still, it was soon time for Tahraoui to take centre stage, twice taking short passes from Adam O'Brien to score under the posts and give the Bulls some badly-needed breathing space.

Workington barely touched the ball during the seven minutes before half-time and Sidlow crashed over from another O'Brien pass.

Shaw then broke down the right flank to send the supporting Henry scampering clear from 30 metres.

At 28-6, it was well and truly game over.

Workington held firm for seven minutes after the restart before Purtell grabbed his second try when Williams expertly caught Gaskell's high kick and found the Australian.

Five minutes later, Gaskell got on the scoresheet when he weaved his way through a gap in the Workington rearguard and then Shaw scored when he collected from Epalahame Lauaki's short pass to cross the line.

Shaw, a former Barrow player, will have enjoyed scoring against a Cumbrian rival and the procession continued in the second half.

Purtell crossed from close range after Clough's pass for his hat-trick score and then Williams, who enjoyed a fine match, showed strength and speed to scamper clear from 40 metres out.

Pitts, who had a typically hard-working game, then took Gaskell's short pass to score the Bulls' latest try in the 74th minute.

Still they were not finished.

Two minutes later, Siejka took a pass from Gaskell to scamper over before Shaw grabbed his second later on, benefiting from Williams' fine break to cross the line.

The bad news for Veivers, who lifted the Challenge Cup as an assistant coach with the Bulls in 2003, and his players is that they must do it all again on Sunday.

The sides clash in a Championship fixture at Odsal – but Veivers should find out tomorrow if he will have any dual-registration players available from Wigan for Sunday's game.

Attendance: 2,412