BULLS SEE OFF BULLDOGS

Bradford Bulls booked a place in the AB Sundecks 1895 Cup quarter-finals with a hard fought 16-12 win over Batley Bulldogs this afternoon.

Brian Noble made six changes to the side that beat Hunslet last time out, with James Donaldson, Matty Gee, Mitch Souter, Jayden Okunbor, Logan Bayliss and Joe Keyes all coming back into the fold. 

The Bulls went down the famous Mount Pleasant slope in the first half and one of those returnees – Souter – got Bradford on the board with an impressive darting effort from dummy half on 10 minutes. 

The home side were resilient in defence to deny Bradford too many scoring opportunities, benefitting from a one-sided penalty count in the opening forty.

Noble’s charges would extend their lead however with half-time closing in. Keyes fed fellow returnee Gee with a short ball for the former Halifax Panthers man to crash over. 

After penalising Bradford on the hooter for offside, Josh Woods obliged to reduce the arrears from the kicking tee. 

The home side took advantage of penalties and errors to get their first try through Dane Manning straight after the interval. 

Soon after, Souter was sent to the sin bin after referee Scott Mikalauskas deemed one penalty too many after a team warning. 

Despite initially keeping the Bulldogs at bay, Jack Render would take Batley into the lead with an acrobatic finish in the corner. 

Souter re-appeared but both sides found themselves with men in the sin bin soon after, with Elliot Kear and Waqa Blake sitting down for 10 minutes. 

Soon after, with Batley ill-discipline creeping in, Souter pinched his second try of the contest to re-establish Bradford’s lead. 

With around ten minutes remaining, the home side found themselves again down to 12 men with Ollie Greensmith sent to the sin bin for a late shot. 

He was joined by captain James Brown, who committed a professional foul after great work from Jayden Okunbor took Bradford within range. 

And not long after that, a huge brawl emerged after Dane Manning was alleged to have thrown punches at Waqa Blake. Manning went for an early bath, and Bulls full-back Tom Holmes was also shown his marching orders. 

Guy Armitage took the last carry of the match with 10 men vs 12 on the field of play, and Bradford held on for their fifth competitive win in five outings so far this season. 

BRADFORD BULLS: Tom Holmes, Jayden Okunbor, Waqa Blake, Kieran Gill, Guy Armitage, James Meadows, Joe Keyes, Michael Lawrence, Mitch Souter, Ebon Scurr, Matty Gee, Zac Fulton, James Donaldson. INTERCHANGES: Franklin Pele, Logan Bayliss, Jordan Lilley, Ronan Michael. 

TRIES: Souter (2), Gee

GOALS: Meadows 2/3