Game

St Helens vs Bradford Bulls

REPORT

Bradford Bulls started and finished an extraordinary match in sensational fashion to inflict an unexpected but well deserved defeat on engage Super League leaders St Helens.
 
The Bulls turned the formbook on its head to bounce back from the humiliation of a 58-22 home defeat by Warrington Wolves and gain only their third win of the season and their first at Knowsley Road for four years.

Bradford threatened such an unlikely result in a storming opening but, when St Helens produced a 12-minute purple patch just before half-time to open up a 26-10 lead, they looked to have blown it.

However, Steve McNamara’s men demonstrated exceptional resolve to score three further tries in a pulsating final quarter to claim a famous victory.

Saints remain four points clear, after champions Leeds suffered a third defeat in four matches, but this result will blow the title race wide open.

Left winger Semi Tadulala scored two tries in the first 10 minutes and the Bulls had two other tries disallowed by the video referee as they made a mockery of their recent results to race into a 10-0 lead against an out-of-sorts Saints side.

St Helens looked anything but champions-elect in the first quarter as an enthusiastic Bradford harried them into a series of uncharacteristic errors.

Their lack of co-ordination was amply illustrated when they lost 50 metres while trying to keep the ball alive on the last tackle.

With morale at a low ebb, Bradford got the confidence the boost they sorely needed and they took full advantage.

The ever-dangerous David Solomona produced a telling kick for Tadulala to grab his first try after just two minutes and then combined with centre Michael Platt to get the Fijiian over for a second, with Paul Sykes adding one conversion.

The small Bradford following could hardly believe their eyes and it could have been even better had video referee Ian Smith not ruled out further scores by Sam Burgess and Steve Menzies following high kicks from scrum-half Ben Jeffries.

But the loss of Solomona with another shoulder injury just three games back from a dislocation, clearly affected Bradford, who also sent on new signing Julien Rinaldi for his debut on 25 minutes.

After being unable to do little right for the first 25 minutes, Saints suddenly put their game together in bewildering fashion.

Smart passing from Leon Pryce, Paul Wellens and Lee Gilmour enabled right winger Ade Gardner to get the scoreboard ticking over and left winger Francis Meli produced a strong finish at the other corner just two minutes later.

Sean Long failed with both conversion attempts but Saints went in front on 30 minutes when former Bradford favourite Pryce twisted and turned in the tackle to touch down near the posts for his 10th try of the season.

It was all one-way traffic now and Bradford were powerless to prevent substitute Gary Wheeler finishing off another sparkling handling move before James Roby broke clear to create a second try for Meli.

Bradford were able to re-group at half-time and a couple of errors from the home side enabled them to set up camp inside the St Helens half.

And the Yorkshiremen got back in the game when substitute prop Craig Kopczak crashed over from close range on 49 minutes to score his first-ever try for the club on his 34th appearance.

Sykes’ second goal cut the gap to 10 points but normal service looked to have been resumed when Saints ran the ball on the last tackle and Long raced onto Wheeler’s speculative kick to touch down and make it 30-16.

However, that was the signal for the Bulls to launch their tremendous fightback with three tries in eight minutes, two of them from substitute Michael Worrincy, to regain the lead.

First Burgess stretched out of an uncompleted tackle to touch down, then Worrincy finished off a break by Tadulala before pouncing on another high kick from Jeffries.

Sykes took his goal tally to five from six attempts and the Bulls withstand a late rally to hold onto their precious lead and see out a landmark win.