Archive
Sun, 01 June 2008
Bradford Bulls V Hull FC
Bradford Bulls: Michael Platt, Dave Halley, Paul Sykes, Shontayne Hape, James Evans, Iestyn Harris, Ben Jeffries, Joe Vagana, Terry Newton, Andy Lynch, David Solomona, Sam Burgess
Subs: Tame Tupou, Matt Cook, Matt James, Simon Finnigan
Tries: Paul Sykes, Tame Tupou
Goals: Iestyn Harris(4)
Hull FC: Byrne, Sing, Yeaman, G. Horne, Raynor, Washbrook, Dykes, Dowes, Berrigan, Carvell, Manu, Radford, Tickle
Subs: Houghton, Wheeldon, Lee, Thackray.
Tries: Sing (2), Byrne.
Goals: Tickle. (5 from 5)
REPORT
Hull FC gave Richard Agar a dream start to his reign as head coach with a shock 16 -22 victory over a disappointing Bradford side in the quarter-finals of the Carnegie Challenge Cup at the Grattan Stadium, Odsal.
The 2005 cup winners have gained only four victories in Super League this year but they are now 80 minutes away from a trip to Wembley after ending a run of six successive defeats at Odsal.
Fortunate to still be in the competition after fielding an ineligible Jamie Thackray in both earlier rounds, Hull must feel their name is on the trophy after producing a spirited performance to stun the Bulls in front of a crowd of just 5,597 at the Grattan Stadium, Odsal.
The visitors edged a forgettable first half punctuated by a flurry of penalties and yellow cards and stood firm in defence in the face of intense Bradford pressure in the second half.
The Bulls, led by Jamie Langley in the absence of both captain Paul Deacon and his official deputy Glenn Morrison, lacked creativity despite dominating possession and territory.
In a dour game, referee Steve Ganson awarded 13 penalties in the first 25 minutes before losing his patience and sending Ben Jeffries (Bradford) and Lee Radford (Hull) to the sin bin for persistent infringements.
Thackray became the third player to be shown the yellow card on 29 minutes when he was punished for dissent but 11-man Hull opened the scoring almost immediately when winger Matt Sing intercepted Iestyn Harris' long pass and held off the spirited challenge of Dave Halley to touch down after an 80-metre sprint.
The teams were back to 12 a piece when Halley was sin-binned for cynically delaying a Hull restart and Hull extended their lead a minute before half-time when stand-off Danny Washbrook smashed a hole in the Bulls defence and Graeme Horne and Adam Dykes were in support to send full-back Todd Byrne over for a second try.
Danny Tickle's fourth goal made it 16-6 and Hull continued in the same vein in the second half, with half-backs Dykes and Washbrook combining with Tickle to get Sing racing in for his second try, although there was more of a hint of a forward pass in the move.
Bradford's fightback was launched by loose forward Sam Burgess, who squeezed a pass out of the tackle for Terry Newton to get substitute Tame Tupou over for his side's first try in the 53rd minute.
Harris added the conversion and Newton had a try disallowed by the video referee for offside as Hull were forced into desperate defence.
Their line was under almost constant siege and eventually cracked when centre Paul Sykes forced his way over for a second try but it was too little, too late for the out-of-touch home side.
POST-MATCH COMMENTS
Bulls head coach Steve McNamara admitted:"It's hugely disappointing. We've not performed well at all."
"Sixteen points in those conditions is a lot to catch up but we should never have got ourselves in that position."
"They defended strong but we didn't throw much quality at them. Our skills were really poor."
"Terry [Newton] ran his blood to water. He tried desperately hard to get the side playing with more fluency."
Newly-appointed Hull coach Richard Agar praised his side's never-say-die attitude after they pulled off a shock victory over Bradford.
"We had to defend and it was quite heroic the way they just kept getting up to make last-ditch tackles."
"I thought we coped tremendously with the sin-binnings. It was 13 against 11 at one stage and all defensive patterns go out of the window. It was every man for himself."
"We gained a lot in attitude during that time. The way we thrived and buzzed off the errors we forced helped instil the belief in us to go on and win."
"We were still not pretty with the football but the attitude really shone through in defence."