News
ACADEMY THROUGH TO FINAL ELIMINATOR
The Bulls Academy are through to the Final Eliminator in the Gillette Academy Championship after scoring twenty four points without reply in the final nine minutes at Castleford. They now face Wigan next weekend to see who goes through to face Wakefield in the Grand Final.
The Bulls started the brighter of the two sides and with George Burgess and Tom Lillycrop setting a great lead up front they quickly went ahead with two well worked tries down the right hand side. Both were scored by Centre Robert Hawthorne and converted by Stand Off Joe Wardle. As the half progressed the Bulls tired a little in the heat and the Tigers took full advantage scoring ten points to trail by only two at the interval.
Scrum Half Danny Addy stretched the lead straight after the break, latching onto a smart pass from Loose Forward James Donaldson to cross too wide for the conversion. The game then entered a bizarre phase as Castleford, aided by the Bulls unforced errors scored five tries without reply, three of them converted, to lead 36-16 with ten minutes to go.
The Bulls looked dead and buried but Lillycrop and George Burgess stepped up the pace and Substitute Matt Harding went in wide out. With Wardle off the field injured Donaldson converted and he was also on hand to add the goal to George Burgess' fine individual effort straight from the restart. The momentum was with the Bulls now but they had only three minutes remaining in which to score another twice. Following a penalty Harding crossed for his second try, again converted by Donaldson and when Castleford conceded another penalty the Bulls pressed strongly. Donaldson had the ball stripped and Rob Hawthorne was on hand to drop on the loose ball in the in goal area to complete his hat trick. Donaldson added the conversion and with time already showing eighty minutes on the clock some fine football from the Bulls saw Man of the Match George Burgess cross under the posts only to be brought back on the intervention of the Touch Judge for an earlier forward pass. Castleford had the head and feed at the scrum but there was not enough time for them to create an opportunity and the whistle sounded to leave the Bulls with a trip to Wigan next week.
Bradford Bulls: Ben Hellewell; Kyle Williamson, Rob Hawthorne, Liam McKay, Adrian Raw; Joe Wardle, Danny Addy; George Burgess, Adam O'Brien, Tom Lillycrop, Michael Tate, Tom Olbison, James Donaldson. Subs. Gareth Hynes, Matthew Harding, Matthew Bailey, Tom Burgess.
Bulls scorers: Tries: Hawthorne 3, Harding 2, Addy, G Burgess. Goals: Donaldson 4, Wardle 2.