Round 11
Warrington Wolves 27 d. Bradford Bulls 4

2006 English Super League Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

Location: United Kingdom > National > First Grade Competition: English Super League

Bulls go down at Halliwell Jones Stadium
Tue April 25, 2006
Source: www.bradfordbulls.co.uk

Warrington Wolves made sure that Steve McNamara endured a losing start as Bradford Bulls coach after a gritty 27-4 win at the Halliwell Jones Stadium.

The Wolves were made to withstand some fierce second-half pressure, but pulled away in the closing stages to complete the double over their Yorkshire rivals who they also beat at Odsal two weeks ago.

Having opened up an early ten-point lead, Wolves were made to work as Bradford came back into proceedings with a Marcus Bai try.

However, despite their best efforts, that proved Bradford's only score of the afternoon and Wolves eased clear in the final 10 minutes through scores from Paul Wood, Martin Gleeson and Lee Briers.

It was Warrington who assumed control after a hectic opening quarter-hour that saw two tries and two men sin-binned.

Bradford's Terry Newton was the first man to be shown the yellow card after just two minutes, although it was harsh on the hooker as Brett Ferres appeared to be the Bulls man who had caught Briers with a high shot.

The hosts needed no second invitation to capitalise on their numerical advantage with Briers sending over Gleeson for the opening score of the match.

Referee Ashley Klein soon levelled matters up when he sent Mike Wainwright to the sin-bin for preventing Bradford from making a quick restart.

It didn't affect the hosts who extended their lead when Ben Westwood raced on to a clever Briers kick to touch down under the posts, Briers added the extras.

Bradford did make some inroads into the deficit before the interval when Iestyn Harris flighted a pass out wide for Bai to power over in the corner.

Briers had chances to edge his side further ahead but failed with a penalty and a couple of drop-goal efforts early in the second period, but Wolves continued to produce some superb defence to keep their opponents at bay at the other end.

Briers finally relieved some of the pressure when he slotted a drop-goal at the third time of asking with 11 minutes remaining and that seemed to open the floodgates as Jon Clarke sent Wood over to give the hosts some real breathing space.

Minutes later Gleeson burst clear to surge in from 20 metres and Briers put a real gloss on the scoreline by crossing himself in the very last minute.

- Steve McNamara Post Match Comments

Report source: www.bradfordbulls.co.uk

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