Round 20
Hull KR 32 d. Bradford Bulls 12

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

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

Hull KR overcome shaky start to down Bradford
Mon July 13, 2009
Source: www.superleague.co.uk

Hull KR maintained their place in engage Super League's top four as they overcame a shaky start to beat Bradford Bulls 32-12 at Craven Park.

Liam Colbon and Kris Welham grabbed two tries apiece as Rovers recovered from 6-0 and 12-6 down to claim victory.

For much of the opening 20 minutes the home side hardly saw the ball and it was no big surprise when the Bulls opened the scoring on nine minutes, Terry Newton providing the ball which sent in full-back Dave Halley and Paul Deacon added the conversion.

Nine minutes later a superb kick from Rovers' Michael Dobson stopped just short of the dead ball line and Scott Murrell dived in to touch down with Dobson's kick putting Rovers level.

Bradford went back ahead on 25 minutes when Michael Worrincy galloped home with Paul Sykes converting as Deacon was off the field with a head injury.

On the half-hour Rovers closed the gap when Jake Webster sent in Colbon in the right corner for an unconverted try.

And they took the lead in the 36th minute when another Dobson kick found Peter Fox whose inside pass sent in Welham.

Dobson converted to put Rovers 16-12 ahead at the break.

After some end-to-end exchanges and three try-saving tackles by Shaun Briscoe, Rovers went further ahead in the 54th minute when Welham bagged his second try from Paul Cooke's kick. Dobson's conversion drifted just wide.

Colbon's second try came in the 67th minute. Briscoe made the initial break and the ball continued to be moved to the right and Colbon touched down in the corner. Dobson was off target with the conversion.

Rovers then forced a drop-out and almost at once Bradford conceded a penalty which allowed Dobson to slot the ball over the posts from 35 metres and a 26-12 lead.

And with three minutes to go Daniel Fitzhenry rounded off the scoring with a try close to the posts, Dobson adding the extras.


Bulls Eye: Bradford v Hull KR
Sat July 11, 2009
Source: www.bradfordbulls.co.uk

Bradford Coach Steve McNamara previews Sunday's round 20 engage Super League clash at Craven Park when the Bulls take on Hull KR.


STEVE McNAMARA
WHERE DO YOU FEEL HULL KR ARE AT THE MOMENT?
I think they have had a good two thirds of the season so far. I think that sitting in the position they are in with the points on the board, they will feel they are very healthy. They have a reasonably healthy squad with a lot of players to choose from at the moment, so they will be a tough test.

They have found a way to play that suits the personnel in their squad and that is obviously winning some games for them. They have a very good kicking game and when you look at the sides that are doing well in the competition you often find they have a very good kicker and that is laying a platform for them. In Michael Dobson and Paul Cooke they have two of the best. Dobson is probably their main indicator at the moment. He is in charge of getting them round the park and he has made a very good job of it so far this season and he is obviously a threat carrying the ball as well.

IT IS A REPEAT OF THE FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON. WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER ABOUT THAT?
I remember a whole lot about it. We actually dominated for large parts of that game. I don't think we played the ball a lot in our half in the second period but we managed to throw the game away and gave them the position to be able to drop a goal to draw the match with the last kick of the game.

WHERE DO YOU FEEL THE BULLS ARE AS OF NOW?
We are obviously disappointed with last week's result and a couple of others before. In our last five games we have performed very well for large parts of them even though we have only managed to pick up a couple of wins. Against Leeds and Saints there were areas we were in control and we didn't get perhaps what we deserved out of them. Last week was just a simple case of us throwing the game away. We were in complete control, got ourselves in a great position ? although I must say some very big calls went against us at the start of the second half ? but after that we didn't do ourselves any favours and ended up chasing and trying to snatch a game we should have won very comfortably.

We are conceding too many points at the moment and it is how we are conceding them that's alarming. We let in four tries in twelve minutes again last week and we got ourselves on the back foot. That has happened on far too many occasions this season and we have done a lot of soul searching to try and find the answers to that and I think we have this week.

SQUAD
Steve McNamara has named the same seventeen players that were on duty against Castleford last week.

The Squad is:

Paul Sykes, Jamie Langley, Rikki Sheriffe, Sam Burgess, James Donaldson, Nick Scruton, Steve Menzies, Terry Newton, Wayne Godwin, Matt Cook, Dave Halley, Chris Nero, Andy Lynch, Craig Kopczak, Ben Jeffries, Semi Tadulala, Michael Worrincy, Michael Platt, Paul Deacon.

MILESTONES
PAUL DEACON has kicked 54 Goals from 68 attempts this season for a percentage of 79.41%.

PAUL SYKES, who has kicked 16 goals from 24 attempts for a percentage of 66.67, needs 6 points for a total of 150 for the club. He has scored 25 tries and kicked 22 goals in 55 appearances in 2 spells at the Bulls.

TERRY NEWTON needs 6 points for a career total of 450 in British Rugby League. He has scored 111 tries in 385 appearances for the Bulls, Leeds, Bramley, Wigan, Gt. Britain, England and Lancashire.

Advanced Search