Bulls victory goes to plan

The Bulls won 42-20 at relegation-threatened Wakefield Trinity in the Engage Super League last night to strengthen their hold on fourth place.

And McNamara, knowing how important it was to make a strong start, said: "We had to work extremely hard in the first half.

"We completed a lot of sets and forced them into some errors. We knew we had to start well.

"Otherwise, if we got behind and the frenzy was whipped up it would have been even more of a struggle."

He added: "I though we were pretty efficient in the first half. We ground them down and that effectively won us the game. We set out with a plan and the players stuck to it. We tired them defensively and came up with some good plays."

The defeat, which was sealed when they went in 24-4 down at half-time, was Trinity's seventh in eight matches and leaves them even more firmly entrenched in 11th place.

They are still above Catalans Dragons, who are exempt from relegation, and there are now only six matches left for Trinity whose coach Tony Smith departed last Monday to save themselves.

Their chief executive Steve Ferres, who picked the team for last night's match, said: "Obviously a lot of work needs to be done and it is imperative that we get someone in place as soon as we possibly can.

"We'll definitely make an announce-ment next week and hopefully early in the week."

Ferres then confirmed that former Bulls hooker James Lowes was on their short-list "as are other people". Ferres, uncle of Bulls second-rower Brett, added: "It's the worst week I have had in 35 years of rugby league.

"It's been a traumatic week for the players as well. They did show some spirit there.

"But the game was won in the first half. You can't win a game with 63 per cent completions as opposed to 80 per cent by Bradford it's as simple as that.

"Bradford are a strong side and they hit us hard in the first half. They came with the big guns, got the go-forward and controlled the ruck area. We didn't respond to that."

McNamara revealed that he thought Wakefield would not only win some more games before the season is over but that they could get out of a relegation slot.

He said: "They have got enough talent to get out of trouble."

Bulls ain't half hot

Wakefield Wildcats 20 Bradford Bulls 42

If anyone doubted that the heat has been turned up on Wakefield Trinity Wildcats' bid to avoid relegation, it came at the post-match press conference.

It was held in a small room in the bowels of the Atlantic Solutions Stadium and, despite it being another sultry evening, the radiator was red hot.

"We can't turn it off," explained a Wildcats employee. It was like being back at school when the radiators seemed to be on in the summer but off in the winter.

But it was the Bulls who handed out nearly all the lessons as the favourites to bow out of Super League this season fell to their seventh defeat in eight matches.

Bulls head coach Steve McNamara may have had some worrying moments in midweek when preparing his team to face a side who had sacked their coach Tony Smith last Monday and are basically playing for their very livelihoods.

But most of the doubts must have disappeared by half-time as Trinity seemed to have few ideas in attack while the Bulls ran in four tries.

The visitors, with Marcus St Hilaire at full back, Marcus Bai returning to the left wing and Karl Pryce partnering him in the centre, also opted to start with Joe Vagana at prop, leaving Brad Meyers on the bench.

Matt Cook made his return as a substitute but all these personnel or positional changes didn't throw the Bulls out of their stride.

Early big hits on Vagana suggested that there was nothing wrong with the Wildcats' morale but it proved to be a dreadful first half for the home side.

A handling error by second-rower Ned Catic deep in his own territory was the first sign that things were going wrong and gave the Bulls an attacking position they didn't squander.

The imposing figure of Karl Pryce took a pass by Brett Ferres and easily sliced between two Trinity defenders in the eighth minute to start the scoreboard rolling.

Paul Deacon landed the conversion and also added a penalty, Wakefield tackling without the ball, as nervousness increased in the home ranks.

With Iestyn Harris and Deacon in fine scheming mood at half-back, the Bulls never missed injured duo Michael Withers (groin) and Ben Harris (hamstring).

Handling errors meant Trinity were unable to mount any sustained pressure at the visitors' end and the frustration of the Wildcats spectators was only increased when a short Deacon pass put Jamie Langley through a gaping hole for the Bulls' second try.

Three minutes later, a Harris bomb was superbly gathered by Bai on the left wing and his offload put Pryce in for his second try.

Deacon missed his only goal of the night but it was still not enough to prevent Trinity from a withering cry of "spineless" from one of their supporters.

In the 31st minute, Wakefield's porous defence was breached for the fourth time, powerhouse winger Lesley Vainikolo getting in on the scoring act as the hosts hesitated following Shontayne Hape's grubber kick.

Trailing 24-0, the Wildcats were putting in a shoddy first-half performance and desperately needed something to go right for them.

They forced a goal-line drop-out in the final ten minutes and with just ten seconds remaining former Bulls Academy centre Ryan Atkins got on the end of David Solomona's pass to score a try, Jamie Rooney failing with the goal.

The attack had started with James Evans, on loan from Huddersfield Giants, slipping a fine pass to Jason Demetriou, who ran diagonally towards the Bulls line.

This glimmer of hope was turned into something more tangible when Atkins scored his second try three minutes after the interval, this time racing on to Solomona's deft kick.

Now the home fans in the 4,003 crowd had something to get their teeth into but Rooney was again wayward with the goal attempt and the Bulls swiftly struck back to regain control of proceedings.

Solomona and Terry Newton escaped without a card after a scuffle and then the Bulls got their fifth try, and their third from a kick.

This time it was a craftily-placed grubber from Deacon, Langley bagging a second against his home-town club after the punt had eluded Harris.

With Newton taking a breather, the crowd quietened down, and they were silenced once again after substitute Ian Henderson scored a simple try when Solomona spilled a routine Harris high kick.

Deacon's sixth goal meant the score was 36-8 on the hour mark and only in the final 20 minutes did the Trinity players really give their supporters something to shout about.

A break by substitute Sam Obst created a try for scrum half Rooney and Atkins then almost went over for what would have been his hat-trick.

He caught up with his own kick infield but the proximity of stand-off Ben Jeffries seemed to cause confusion and a knock-on occurred.

However, the Bulls' possession was disrupted by a rare scrum against the feed and Rooney made it two tries in four minutes.

Now the Wakefield supporters were in full voice as there were still 12 minutes left and the gap was down to 16 points but there was to be no fairy tale ending, and the Bulls finished matters off in style with Hape's 70th-minute effort.