4th Round
Bradford Bulls 98 d. Toulouse 6

2008 Challenge Cup Index [Draw] [Club Headlines]

Location: United Kingdom > National > First Grade Competition: Challenge Cup

Bulls in record breaking rout
Sun April 20, 2008
Source: www.therfl.co.uk

Bradford Bulls ran riot with a club record 17-try 98-6 romp in their fourth-round Carnegie Challenge Cup tie to blow a huge hole in Toulouse's claims for an engage Super League franchise.

Full-back Dave Halley scored four tries and stand-off Iestyn Harris kicked 15 conversions from 17 attempts to break the club's goalkicking record originally set by Joe Phillips in 1952 and equalled by Henry Paul eight years ago.

Bradford's score broke their previous highest set in their 96-16 engage Super League win over Salford in 2000.

Loose forward Glenn Morrison and winger Semi Tadulala both grabbed hat-tricks and the Bulls also had three other tries disallowed as they piled on the agony for Toulouse, whose 2007-08 season was brought to a sudden and calimitous end with a third defeat in eight days.

The outcome was a major disappointment for the 3,569 crowd, which included Rugby Football League chief executive Nigel Wood, and a huge embarrassment for the French.

With eight first-choice players sidelined through injury, Toulouse were a pale shadow of the side that reached the semi-finals just three years ago.

Bradford, even without four regulars, including captain and record points scorer Paul Deacon, had too much power and pace for the French part-timers and could have won by an even bigger margin.

When the Bulls led 36-0 after just 18 minutes, there was a real possiblity of them breaking the tournament record score of 120 set by Rochdale against amateurs Illingworth three years ago.

But Toulouse briefly halted the Bulls charge and left winger Frederic Vaccari pulled a try back on 22 minutes, bumping off prop Chris Feather on the way to the line, and full-back Hosni Kriouachi added the conversion.

The gulf in class was all to evident from the moment Great Britain forward Sam Burgess plunged over for the opening try in the second minute.

Scrum-half Ben Jeffries, Tadulala and substitute forward Simon Finnigan all touched down twice before half-time, with Morrison, James Evans and Halley adding others.

Tadulala completed his second hat-trick of the season 10 minutes into the second half and Morrison did likewise after taking an offload from Finnigan and then re-gathering a kick by Jeffries.

Morrison had a fourth try disallowed but Halley achieved that feat after going over for three in a seven-minute spell and Tame Tupou also got on the scoresheet on his first appearance for a month.

Report source: www.therfl.co.uk

Article: McNamara supports Toulouse


Bulls Eye: Bradford v Toulouse (Challenge Cup)
Fri April 18, 2008
Source: www.bradfordbulls.co.uk

In this week's Bulls Eye Bradford Coach Steve McNamara looks ahead to Saturday's Carnegie Challenge Cup 4th Round game at the Grattan Stadium when the Bulls meet French side Toulouse Olympique XIII.

STEVE McNAMARA
IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME SINCE THE BULLS REACHED THE CUP FINAL?
It's been too long. We got to the Semi Final last year and fell a hurdle short and we are very determined to go one better this year. I think getting to the Final is tough every year and the sides that get there deserve to. We have had some particularly tough draws in recent years and with the way the competition is - with any side capable of beating another - then if you get to a draw with a reasonably healthy squad then you have to be happy with that because injuries are making a big impact on the game at the moment.

WOULD YOU SAY THAT TOULOUSE IS A FAVOURABLE DRAW FOR YOU?
You would have to say so because you are not playing a Super League side and you are at home so it's the kind of draw you want. But we certainly won't be underestimating them because if they are saving themselves for any game then it will be this one. We are putting out a very strong squad for this game and, like I said, we are making the Challenge Cup a big priority this year.

The fact they have nothing to lose will make them a little unpredictable. We have done as much research into them as we can but they are an unknown quantity to a certain extent. We have watched them when they played Keighley and we have had some other information. They will be different to what we would expect from a week to week Super League side. They are not a fully professional outfit so they won't be as strong as us and they won't be as fit during the course of the whole game but if we treat that with disrespect -like keep giving them the ball- then you can make life difficult for yourself but if we approach it in a right manner then we should be good enough to win this game and win it comfortably.

YOU HAVE A STRONG SQUAD PLAYING?
We have some issues to work on from last week and we will do that but everyone at the club would love to get to the Carnegie Challenge Cup Final and we are making sure we are prepared in the right manner and not taking any chances. Week to week in Super League is very intense and this game has some intensity about it but in a different way. We would be lying if we said we would be playing the best side in the world - just to get up for the game - but we know we have to do a professional job. The players need to please the Coach to make sure they get picked next week and the club also has a bunch of fans who want to see us go out and play well for them. They deserve that and we want to do it for them.

SQUAD
Steve McNamara welcomes back Michael Platt but Joe Vagana, Paul Deacon, Shontayne Hape and Chris Nero are not in this week's squad, which includes 18- year old Prop Steve Crossley.

The 19 man Squad is: Sam Burgess, Paul Sykes, Steve Crossley, Glenn Morrison (c), James Evans, Dave Halley, Michael Platt, Chris Feather, Iestyn Harris, Wayne Godwin, Ben Jeffries, Simon Finnigan, Andy Lynch, Semi Tadulala, David Solomona, Terry Newton, Tame Tupou, Matt James, Jamie Langley.

MILESTONES
PAUL DEACON has kicked 42 goals from 49 attempts this season for an average of 85.71%

IESTYN HARRIS needs 2 Tries for a career total of 150. he has scored 148 Tries for Warrington, Leeds, Bradford, Gt. Britain, Wales and Gt. Britain Under 21's.

WAYNE GODWIN needs 8 points for a career total of 300. The Hooker has scored 33 tries and kicked 80 goals in his 152 appearances.

News sent by: www.bradfordbulls.co.uk

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