Steely Bradford Bulls end Halifax Panthers’ unbeaten Championship start

HALIFAX PANTHERS 8 BRADFORD BULLS 12
KEITH McGHIE, The Shay, Friday

BRADFORD capitalized on a monumental defensive effort to end Championship leaders Halifax’s six-match unbeaten start to the season in front of almost 5,000 opposingly passionate fans.

Halifax remain top of the table but will wonder how so much possession, especially before the break, resulted in so few points on the scoreboard.

Their conclusion will surely be a tireless rearguard effort that Bradford coach Brian Noble will no doubt be proud of, allied to the ability to take what very few chances the battered yet belligerent Bulls had.

One try either side of half-time settled a pulsating local derby with converted tries from James Meadows and Luke Hooley enough to overhaul a try and two goals from Louis Jouffret.

The Bulls, with Eribe Doro, on a two-week loan, joining fellow ex-Fax men Joe Keyes and Matty Gee, were without prolific try scorer Kieran Gill, who suffered a knee injury in the 1895 Cup quarter final victory over Sheffield.

But the Bulls, roared on by their usual vociferous travelling support, welcomed back powerful forward Ebon Scurr after a six-week injury absence.

The Panthers, opening the north stand for the first time this season, had to weather the unavoidable loss of influential halfback Jack Hansen, whose wife was expecting a baby, plus injured prop Ronan Dixon. Warrington loanee Tom Whitehead came off the bench to partake in what was always likely to be a titanic struggle for superiority up front.

Pre-match fireworks were followed by plenty more on the field during a gripping opening stanza from which outrageously dominant Fax walked off with just an 8-6 advantage at half-time.

Zack McComb made his 100th appearance for Fax, who came within a whisker of taking the lead when a Jouffret stab in goal just evaded Charlie Graham. Tom Inman then came equally close.

Having launched the non-stop onslaught and withstood some big hits preventing the Bulls coming out of defence, Jouffret edged the Panthers ahead with a penalty.

The Bulls heaped more pressure on themselves with a succession of handling errors but must take credit for superb defence, with James Woodburn-Hall amazingly held up during a spell when their opponents barely had any possession.

Jacob Fairbank was sin-binned midway through the half but it made little difference to Halifax’s dominance.

Even the introduction of Doro and Franklin Pele failed to arrest Fax’s momentum and eventually, a McComb kick was hacked on by Tom Inman for Jouffret to touchdown and convert his own score.

Completely against the run of play James Meadows sold a dummy deep in his own half and, with no support, dashed 65 metres to score under the posts, with Hooley easily adding the two.

As Bulls began the second half more positively, Ronan Michael released Hooley through a gaping gap to dart between the posts and give his side the lead for the first time.

Fax, unaccustomed to being behind this year, continued to create openings but Bradford maintained their aggressive defence, although the game remained on a knife edge, with Jayden Okunbur twice wonderfully diffusing high kicks to the corner under immense pressure until a desperate last-gasp attack ended with the ball flying into touch.

GAMESTAR: Jayden Okunbor was strong and safe at the back and ran with aggression anywhere he had the ball.

GAMEBREAKER: Not until Charlie Graham threw the final pass high into touch could Bulls breath easily.

MATCHFACTS
PANTHERS
1 Louis Jouffret
2 Ben Tibbs
3 Charlie Graham
4 Ben Crooks
5 James Saltonstall
14 Tom Inman
6 James Woodburn-Hall
8 Brandon Douglas
9 Adam O’Brien
11 Owen McCarron
19 Zack McComb
12 Adam Tangata
13 Jacob Fairbank
Subs (all used)
20 Brad Graham
15 Connor Davies
33 Tom Whitehead
17 Will Calcott

Tries: Jouffret (33)
Goals: Jouffret 2/2
Sin bin: Fairbank (18) – illegal challenge

BULLS
26 Luke Hooley
37 Jayden Okunbor
3 Waqa Blake
25 Bayley Liu
5 Guy Armitage
7 Joe Keyes
6 James Meadows
8 Michael Lawrence
14 Mitch Souter
10 Ebon Scurr
11 Zac Fulton
12 Matty Gee
13 James Donaldson
Subs (all used)
9 Jordan Lilley
20 Ronan Michael
27 Eribe Doro
17 Franklin Pele