Round 15
Bradford Bulls 36 d. Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 22

2009 engage English Super League Index [Table] [Draw] [Player Stats] [Club Headlines]

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

Deacon's boot the difference in Bulls 14-point victory
Mon June 8, 2009
Source: www.superleague.co.uk

Bradford Bulls were indebted to a perfect goalkicking display from skipper Paul Deacon as they kept alive their slender engage Super League play-off hopes with a thrilling win over Wakefield Wildcats.

With both sides scoring five tries, Deacon provided the difference, landing all eight kicks at goal, in marked contrast to Wakefield's Danny Brough, who managed just one from five attempts.

Defeat was tough on Wakefield centre Sean Gleeson, who scored a first-half hat-trick after being called into the side as a replacement for the injured Ryan Atkins.

Atkins, who has a shoulder injury, is rated a 50-50 chance to line up for England against France on Saturday.

Bradford's solitary international, Sam Burgess, could also be a doubt after being sin-binned, along with Wakefield captain Jason Demetriou, for his part in a second-half flare-up and could be forced to face a disciplinary hearing.

There was relief all round Odsal as the Bulls gained a second win over the Wildcats in a month but only their second at home this season as they seek to revive their flagging campaign.

Bradford coach Steve McNamara responded to back-to-back defeats at the hands of the two promoted clubs by dropping Michael Platt and Matt Cook in giving a debut to 19-year-old second rower Elliott Whitehead.

The changes paid off in the opening stages as the Bulls started promisingly to open up a 14-4 lead after 21 minutes.

Centre Chris Nero sidestepped his way over for the game's first try and loose forward Jamie Langley broke through the first line of defence to get Steve Menzies over for the first of his two tries.

Deacon converted both scores and put over a penalty before Gleeson took centre stage.

The former Wigan player had opened his account on 14 minutes after second rower Steve Snitch had caused the initial breach down Bradford's right-hand side.

He added a second, courtesy of Danny Brough's short pass, and completed his hat-trick on 32 minutes after a superb break and inside pass by full-back Matt Blaymire.

Brough was only able to add one of the conversions to leave the scores tied at 14-14 and Bradford regained the lead three minutes before half-time when Langley carved out a second try for Menzies after repeating his earlier heroics.

The Wildcats cut the deficit to just two points early in the second half when Snitch scored a fourth try, taking advantage of a ricochet from Brough's grubber kick.

But a knock-on by Michael Korkidas near his own line gifted the Bulls a dream attacking position and Julien Rinaldi made them pay by forcing his way over from dummy half for his first try for the club which effectively turned the game Bradford's way.

Menzies, who made the initial inroads, took a return pass from impressive full-back Dave Halley and Ben Jeffries kept the ball alive for Nero to finish off a glorious move with his second try.

After the flurry of scoring, the game eventually settled down, only to flare up on 67 minutes when both sides traded punches, and they were reduced to 12 men when Demetriou and Burgess were showed the yellow card.

Wakefield gave themselves hope when Brad Drew's cut-out pass got winger Scott Grix over for a fifth try on 67 minutes but it was not enough to release Bradford's grip on the game and Deacon made sure of the win with two further penalties in the last seven minutes.


Bulls Eye: Bradford v Wakefield
Sat June 6, 2009
Source: www.bradfordbulls.co.uk

Bradford Coach Steve McNamara previews Bradford's engage Super League round 15 clash against Wakefield at the Grattan Stadium this Sunday.



STEVE McNAMARA
FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A WHILE IT LOOKS LIKE THERE WILL BE SOME COMPETITION FOR PLACES THIS WEEK?
There is because we have a few senior players back in contention, such as Glenn Morrison and Semi Tadulala and we have also got some young players knocking very hard on the first team door through their performances in our second team. We set them some challenges and they have responded to them in the right way and are really putting pressure on the squad.

We are looking forward to this week; we have had no game because of the Challenge Cup and we are refreshed and ready to go and there's no better incentive than there is competition for places. Training this week will determine whether some players play or don't.

HAVE YOU GOT THOSE LAST TWO PERFORMANCES OUT OF YOUR SYSTEM?
I think so. We have obviously got to turn out strongly and play on Sunday and we intend to do so. The Celtic game was a very substandard performance from ourselves - although Celtic played well on the day - but in the Salford game I thought we were really dominant for large parts of that game. At 4-0 we had a try to Andy Lynch disallowed controversially - the In Goal Judge gave it and then changed his mind - and whilst I don't want to make excuses - that 4-0 goes to 10-0- it was next to the posts - and in those conditions we would probably have gone on to win that game from that position. But we need to turn that round and make sure we are better than any poor decisions that go against us.

It's the second half of the season for us. We are thirteen games in with fourteen left and we intend to play very well and pick up lots of points in this period. In terms of what we are looking to achieve this season we have set ourselves some targets and some goals and, whilst it's a clean slate for the players, the rest of the season starts now. Some of them have shown what they can and what they can't do at this time and like I said there is now competition for places. People will be judged on how they play in games - as they always are - but also in practice as well.

THE RESULTS AND THE PERFORMANCES HAVE TO COME AND YOU HAVE JUST GOT TO BE RUTHLESS NOW WITH THE SQUAD YOU HAVE?
Without a doubt and believe me it's going to happen. We have to find ways to win and with the added competition we have got it gives us the opportunity to change things if we are not happy with them and that's how it should be. We envisaged it to be that way at the start of the season and we would be in even better shape now but for the Tupou situation and the injuries to David Solomona, Wayne Godwin and Jason Crookes but it's probably as good a position for us as it could be at this time.

GLENN MORRISON HAS NOW GOT HIS POT OFF AND IS TAKING PART IN TRAINING. WILL HE FEATURE?
He brings a whole lot of quality to practice and to games. We are not quite sure whether he is fully ready to go - we will wait and see how the week finishes off. He brings a whole lot to our organisation on and off the field and we have missed him a lot. He is one of our leaders and it's great to potentially have him back this week.

WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF WAKEFIELD WILDCATS?
They responded to the Huddersfield defeat with a big win last week. They managed to get out on the field again straight away and that's always good after a defeat. They have some outstanding individuals within their group who are real threats across the park. They are a quick side, an elusive side; they break tackles, so we will have to be at our best both in attack and defence this week.

EVERYONE TALKS ABOUT BROUGH AND DREW AS BEING THE CREATIVE PART OF THEIR SIDE BUT WHAT OTHER THREATS DO THEY POSE?
Those two are obviously very creative but they have other half backs as well in there. There's Sam Obst, Jamie Rooney and Tevita Leo-Latu who are all playing at this time. When you combine those with some big raw boned forwards then they have threats throughout their side. Ryan Atkins has been picked in the England Squad and Matt Blamire has had a taste of that a couple of years ago, so they have a good blend of youth, experience and talented footballers.

We have played each other twice in recent months and we probably know more about each other than any other teams at this time.

SQUAD
Bulls Coach Steve McNamara has added 19 year's old Elliott Whitehead to the Squad from the Salford game in place of Tom Olbison but Glenn Morrison misses out as it is felt he still needs another week to recover from his wrist injury.

The Squad named is:
Matt Cook, Jamie Langley, Rikki Sheriffe, Sam Burgess, Paul Sykes, Nick Scruton, Steve Menzies, Terry Newton, Elliott Whitehead, Julien Rinaldi, Dave Halley, Chris Nero, Andy Lynch, Craig Kopczak, Ben Jeffries, Semi Tadulala, Michael Worrincy, Michael Platt, Paul Deacon.

MILESTONES
PAUL DEACON has kicked 30 Goals from 41 attempts this season for a percentage of 73.17%.

PAUL SYKES, who made his debut on July 2nd 1999 against Wakefield at Belle Vue, will play his 200th career game ironically against the Wildcats this week. He has made 52 appearances for the Bulls, 137 appearances for London Broncos/ Harlequins and 10 International appearances. He has scored 75 Tries and kicked 315 Goals including 4 Drop Goals for a total of 926 points. This season he has scored 7 tries and has kicked 15 goals from 23 attempts for a percentage of 65.22.

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