WARRINGTON WOLVES 32
BRADFORD BULLS 28
DAVE PARKINSON at Halliwell Jones Stadium, Friday
With Jon Clarke and Michael Monaghan in top form, Warrington Wolves recorded their third win in a row to move four points clear of the Bradford Bulls and up into fourth place on the Engage Super League table.
The tussle between two of the play-off challengers was every bit as close as the scoreline suggested.
“It’s always pleasing to get a result.” Warrington boss James Lowes opened, “there’s still a lot of work to do, but once we get it right we’ll certainly be a force. Generally I thought our defence was good. I thought we controlled the ruck but we were just doing too much of it. I don’t want the lads to stop playing, they just need to smarten up sometimes, realise when the right time to play is and when the right time not to play is, and, on the back of that, a little bit of execution as well. That would give us more energy to play a little bit more with the ball. Generally we’ve got a few things to work on but we scraped by and got a win today against a decent team.”
“Monaghan is settling well while with Jon (Clarke), his confidence is growing week by week and while he knows there are one or two things to improve on he’s certainly making a play in the right direction and some of his skill tonight was pretty good. The character and pride and effort of this team is second to none since I’ve taken over and they are willing to roll their sleeves up and not drop their heads.”
The Bulls opened their account well with tries by Andy Lynch and Chris Nero in the first ten minutes. Both were converted by the returning Paul Deacon who enjoyed an influential first 45 minutes before Warrington got on a roll. Firstly, Deacon’s grubber kick deflected off the legs of Adrian Morley into the path of Lynch before a high quality play saw David Solomona offload superbly for Semi Tadulala. The winger dashed upfield, beating two defenders before passing inside for former Huddersfield centre Chris Nero to stroll over.
At 12-0 it needed something special to lift Warrington and their fans and this was provided by Martin Gleeson who Bulls boss Steve McNamara described as “someone there that’s got that X-factor.” He drew similar praise from Lowes:
“Martin Gleeson is playing really well, he’s going hunting for the ball. I’m pleased he is because he does make things happen and his first try summed that up. He came from the right side to the left, pushed on a play and scored a great try!”
Make that a 90 metre special. Ben Jeffries put the ball in the corner and on the next play Matt King ran into the defence before finding Gleeson at his shoulder. The England centre raced to halfway and deliberately slowed to force Michael Platt into a decision. He then danced past the beleaguered fullback and moved up through the gears again to score underneath the posts. Chris Hicks converted and there were chances at either end with only top drawer defence halting wingers Tadulala and Chris Riley while Ben Westwood saw an intended offload fall for Jeffries close to the Bulls line. More drama followed when impressive prop Craig Kopczak had a try disallowed by the video referee following an obstruction in back play.
After seeing the Bulls concede 30 metres with a kick to the corner earlier in the game, Deacon returned to the tactic after 37 minutes and it came up trumps. Tadulala was like the artful dodger as he appeared from nowhere to snatch the ball at the second attempt from Riley and touch down. The scrum half’s boot made it 18-6 but Tadulala was to turn villain when he knocked on in front of his own posts with 39 seconds of the first half remaining. Warrington quickly packed the scrum and launched an attack down the right through Lee Briers. Gleeson then spied his chance to get between two defenders and over the line for his second try. Hicks converted on the hooter and it was 18-12 to Bradford at the break.
The Bulls made a rapid start to the second half when they were awarded their second penalty. One time Warrington favourite Iestyn Harris landed the ball in touch via Kevin Penny and Jeffries was halted close to the line. Warrington were slow to react at marker and Platt scored an easy try from dummy half. Deacon’s boot again increased the Bull’s lead to twelve points but when the fullback was halted for running an obstructionplay, Warrington grabbed the initiative. A seven pass play twice involving the impressive Clarke saw Gleeson hauled down but an error from the otherwise solid Dave Halley handed possession to the Wolves. Briers sparked a move from the scrum and Hicks cut back against the grain to glide over the line. The fullback converted and was again on target after 56 minutes after Monaghan found an unstoppable King from close range.
The game was locked up but Warrington’s third try in eleven minutes saw the hosts go in front for the first time. Clarke was the provider with a flat ball from dummy half that saw New Zealand international Louis Anderson crash through for Hicks to make it 30-24.
Bradford resorted to the high kick again, but this time Riley claimed possession confidently. Solomona was then shown the yellow card for a late hit on Briers after the stand-off had kicked downfield. “I thought it was a really poor decision.” McNamara said, “I don’t blame the referee at all it was the intervention of the touchjudge. For the life of me, I didn’t see what he saw. It’s two weeks running now that official has done it to us.”
Surprisingly, this spurred the Bulls on. James Evans combined with Jamie Langley and the big backrower found a hole in the defence. Jeffries followed up in support and was able to wrong-foot three chasers to the try line and a 69th minute score. The conversion was too far out for Deacon and the last ten minutes was like a chess game for Warrington as they ground out their sets and controlled play thanks to Monaghan and Clarke, the former all but securing the points after forcing a drop out in the last minute.
McNamara felt his side made four errors after opening the scoring in the second half.
“The four came back to back, one after the other and put us under a bit of pressure and probably got this Warrington ground buzzing.” He said. “It was pretty quiet up until that point when we were in charge but it certainly gave their team and their crowd a big lift. I’m pleased with the effort and commitment from the players. We really scrambled hard in the first half when Warrington had made some breaks on us and damaged us a little bit. I think you can only describe as some school boy errors really got us. It’s disappointing to lose the game.”
“Craig Kopczak was great for us and I thought the return of Paul Deacon certainly brought a lot back to our game. All across the park there were some very good performances from a squad that is a little bit down on numbers at this moment in time.”
“It’s a tight competition but we are delighted that we are in there fighting. Of course we’d love to be higher than we are, but we are in a situation now where we are all looking forward to the challenge of making the six, it’s nothing to be afraid of or phased by, it’s a challenge.”
GAMEBREAKER: Warrington’s control in the final ten minutes rarely gave Bradford a sniff.
GAMESTAR: Jon Clarke’s big workrate in attack and defence helped get the Wolves around the field.
TOP TACKLE: There were two in this game. On 25 minutes Riley’s tackle on Tadulala saw the Bulls winger in touch a metre from the tryline while five minutes later Solomona put everything into hauling down Riley. Those tries would have put an entirely different complexion on the game.
WOLVES
2 Chris Hicks
20 Chris Riley
3 Martin Gleeson
4 Matt King
5 Kevin Penny
6 Lee Briers
7 Michael Monaghan
8 Adrian Morley
9 Jon Clarke
10 Paul Rauhihi
11 Louis Anderson
12 Ben Westwood
13 Vinnie Anderson
Subs (all used)
19 Simon Grix
15 Rob Parker
23 Mike Cooper
22 Ben Harrison
BULLS
1 Michael Platt
2 Dave Halley
3 James Evans
23 Chris Nero
25 Semi Tadulala
22 Ben Jeffries
7 Paul Deacon
8 Joe Vagana
6 Iestyn Harris
10 Andy Lynch
11 David Solomona
19 Simon Finnigan
13 Jamie Langley
Subs (all used)
15 Matt Cook
20 Wayne Godwin
18 Craig Kopczak
14 Chris Feather
Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Wolves: Jon Clarke
Bulls: Paul Deacon
Penalty count: 8-2
GLDO Forced: 2-0
Half-time: 12-18
Referee: Mr Ben Thaler
Attendance: 8,158
Story of the game
7 Andy Lynch try
Paul Deacon goal (1/1) 0-6
9 Chris Nero try
Paul Deacon goal (2/2) 0-12
22 Martin Gleeson try
Chris Hicks goal (1/1) 6-12
37 Semi Tadulala try
Paul Deacon goal (3/3) 6-18
39 Martin Gleeson try
Chris Hicks goal (2/2) 12-18
HALF-TIME
41 Michael Platt try
Paul Deacon goal (4/4) 12-24
51 Chris Hicks try
Chris Hicks goal (3/3) 18-24
56 Matt King try
Chris Hicks goal (4/4) 24-24
62 Louis Anderson try
Chris Hicks goal (5/5) 30-24
67 Sin bin: David Solomona (foul on kicker)
Chris Hicks penalty goal (6/6) 32-24
69 Ben Jeffries try
Paul Deacon missed goal (4/5) 32-28
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