Bulls power past Wolves
Bradford exacted revenge on Warrington for their heavy home defeat earlier in the season as claimed a 21-10 away win over the Wolves.
Last Updated: 14/06/09 5:54pm
Bradford exacted revenge on Warrington for their humiliating home defeat earlier in the season as they secured a 21-10 win over the Wolves at the Halliwell Jones Stadium on Sunday.
Warrington inflicted the low point of the Bulls' campaign to date when they thumped Steve McNamara's side 58-22 at Odsal back in April.
However, shorn of some of their key performers, they were unable to repeat the trick on home soil as Bradford built on last weekend's win over Wakefield.
Chris Nero, Glenn Morrison and Terry Newton all touched down for the visitors as Paul Deacon chipped in with nine points with the boot, while in-form Warrington could muster only second-half tries from Simon Grix and Chris Hicks.
The Wolves had won seven of their previous eight games going into the match, but were without Adrian Morley and Ben Westwood due to international duty, while Lee Briers limped off after just 16 minutes with an apparent hamstring injury.
Bradford, who did without Sam Burgess who was also on England duty, took advantage and scored the game's first try shortly before Briers' departure as Nero crossed the whitewash.
Paid the penalty
However, Warrington really should have prevented the score, but paid the penalty for failing to push Steve Menzies into touch as the centre somehow offloaded to stand-off Ben Jefferies whose well-judged kick was collected by Nero, the 28-year-old beating a couple of defenders on his way to line.
Paul Deacon added the extras and edged his side further ahead with a penalty just after the half-hour mark and a drop-goal on the stroke of half time.
Bradford were back on the offensive at the start of the second period and had a try disallowed when replacement Elliott Whitehead raced on to Deacon's pass before touching down.
But they did not have long to wait for a second try, although it came after a promising break from Paul Rauhihi which looked to have set up an opportunity for the Wolves.
Lost the ball
However, Rauhihi lost the ball as he looked to offload and Bradford swiftly broke downfield. Having neatly worked the ball from left to right it was Morrison who carved a path through the home defence before beating Richie Mathers to ground the ball.
Deacon added the extras, but Warrington gave themselves renewed hope in the 52nd minute as Bridge set up Grix who stepped inside a tackler and raced under the posts - Bridge slotted the conversion to make the scoreline 15-6.
But it was not to signal a home fightback as Bradford stood firm and extended their lead with a Deacon penalty before all but ending the contest with their third try on 68 minutes when Newton collected an intelligent offload from Dave Halley to storm over.
Hicks did grab his 16th try of the season when he forced his way over in the corner with just three minutes remaining, but it was no more than a consolation score for Tony Smith's side.
