Finals Week One
Bradford Bulls 52 d. Salford City Reds 6

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

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

Bulls fire warning to play-off rivals
Sun September 24, 2006
Source: www.bradfordbulls.co.uk

Bradford showed they are in no mood to surrender their Super League crown without a fight as they hammered Salford 52-6.

Shontayne Hape scored four of the Bull's eight tries in the elimination match, while Paul Deacon produced a masterful display at scrum-half.

After working so hard just to finish in the top six, The Reds froze on their first play-off appearance.

A disastrous first 40 minutes meant the game was out of their reach by half-time and the writing was on the wall when they allowed the opening kick off to go out on the bounce.

An injury to Andrew Dunemann didn't help their cause, although the little Australian would have been hard pushed to stop the rampaging Bulls.

The opening two tries both came from kicks from Deacon, Michael Withers grabbing the opener when he rose highest to take a bomb into the right corner.

Luke Robinson had no chance of stopping the full-back from reeling in the high ball, but the scrum-half was certainly at fault for Bradford's second score as he failed to deal with a bouncing ball near his own line.

His error allowed Brett Ferres the easiest of scores after Salford had been denied a try of their own just before by a brilliant tackle from Lesley Vainikolo on Aaron Moule.

The winger's excellent efforts in defence were followed up by a hat-trick from Hape, although he was thankful to the Reds for his first try of the night.

A rare error from Malcolm Alker gave the Bulls possession and the New Zealand international ploughed his way over on the right flank.

Substitute Paul Johnson's neat offload set up Hape's second and he went on to add two more after the break as Bradford continued to pile on the points.

To their credit, Salford refused to go down without a fight and finally got themselves on the board with an excellent solo score from David Hodgson.

The former Wigan man made the most of a quick-tap penalty to gallop to the line and give the Reds' fans something to cheer about.

However, their joy proved to be shortlived, Bradford hitting back through Andy Lynch on the hour mark.

Chris McKenna accepted Deacon's offload to score the seventh Bulls' try and youngster Sam Burgess rounded off the scoring and take Bradford beyond the 50-point barrier.

Report source: www.bradfordbulls.co.uk

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