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Bradford Bulls edge out Castleford Tigers in dour struggle
Brett Ferres in the thick of the action.
For the second successive year, Castleford Tigers suffered their first defeat at the season at the hands of Bradford Bulls.
Tigers were left wondering how they managed to lose a dour struggle 20-12 in the Probiz Stadium mud, after dominating possession and territory for long spells – but Bulls deserved to win.
Their defence was outstanding and they took their limited chances when they came, while Tigers huffed and puffed to little effect.
Crucially, the hosts failed to take advantage when Bulls’ Heath L’Estrange was sin-binned late in the third quarter, at a time when Bradford seemed to be out on their feet.
It was an achievement to get the game on after the pitch had been covered in snow as late as a few hours before kick-off, though the volunteers who responded to Tigers’ ‘bring a shovel’ appeal may have wished they hadn’t bothered.
Other than the patches between the 20 and 40 metre lines in each half, the field was cleared though most of the Railway End was roped off, with piles of snow left on the terracing.
The surface was heavy and most of the players were caked in mud within five minutes of the game kicking off.
All of which – plus the yellow ball – made for a strange spectacle and an error-ridden encounter, high on effort, but with little quality – though there were flashes from Rangi Chase.
Cas coach Ian Millward gave full credit to Bulls, describing their performance as “terrific” – but he felt poor execution let the hosts down.
“We had a lot of opportunities to score tries,” he said. “We threatened to score quite a few times, but we were not quite as clinical as we could have been in attack.
“It was a game of inches and missed opportunities and not being able to build sustained pressure.”
Cas certainly should have made more of a 10-6 penalty count, which was 10-3 at one stage deep in the second half.
Bulls started like a team given the rounds of the kitchen during the week following their home drubbing by Catalan in round one, then they dug in grimly in the face of intense pressure when Cas got into the contest.
Joe Arundel’s ankle tap on Elliott Whitehead and Josh Griffin’s brilliant tackle to halt Adrian Purtell kept Tigers’ line intact before Jarrod Sammut opened the scoring from Brett Kearney’s offload, after the full-back had beaten opposite number Richard Owen to Luke Gale’s bomb.
Terrific
Gale converted and added the extras to Bradford’s second try, on the stroke of half-time, after Tom Burgess got the ball down from Jamie Langley’s terrific short pass, in the set from Bulls’ second penalty.
It was against the run of play as Tigers pinned the visitors near their own line without being able to find a way through, though only a desperate tackle by Jason Crookes denied Chase and Kearney produced a try-saving stop on Stuart Jones.
Failing to find touch with a penalty kick is one of rugby league’s great sins and both teams did it early in the second period.
Danny Orr’s error went unpunished, but Bulls paid the price when Sammut did it soon after, on 48 minutes.
On the counter-attack Orr’s pass found Chase, who flicked the ball on to Owen. He supplied Ryan McGoldrick, whose offload sent Griffin over, Kirk Dixon adding the extras.
Griffin turned try-saver moments later, combining with Orr to hammer Crookes into touch just short.
Orr’s break in the next set took Cas upfield and hooker/co-captain L’Estrange was sin-binned for offside on his own team’s line.
Tigers could have levelled almost immediately, but Griffin just failed to hang on to Chase’s kick over the Bulls’ whitewash.
As L’Estrange was preparing to return, Tigers’ Jake Emmitt committed a similar offence at the other end and was also yellow carded, Gale booting the subsequent penalty to edge the visitors two scores ahead.
Bulls made certain of the points with three minutes left when Kearney finished from Sammut’s pass, Gale converting. Owen’s late touchdown, after good work by Chase and improved by Dixon, was mere consolation.
Bulls coach Mick Potter reflected: “The players are feeling good and they deserve to. There was a lot of effort put in and we had to cope with a lot of adversity.
“They did a great job and they deserved to win.”
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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