Pat Richards helped himself to a 16-point haul as the Wigan Warriors cruised to an emphatic 54-16 victory over struggling Bradford at Odsal.
Winger moves past Frano Botica in Wigan's all-time scoring list
Wigan winger Pat Richards produced a 16-point haul to overtake Frano Botica on the club's all-time points-scoring chart as the Warriors cruised to an emphatic 54-16 victory over struggling Bradford at Odsal.
The 2010 Man of Steel scored one of his side's 10 tries and kicked six goals from eight attempts to take his points tally for the club to 1,943, edging him in front of Botica, with only Jim Sullivan and Andy Farrell now in front of him.
It was all too easy for the Warriors, with Darrell Goulding, Josh Charnley, Liam Farrell and Chris Tuson all taking advantage of a weak Bradford defence to score two tries piece.
The Bulls, who gave debuts to centre Keith Lulia and prop forward Phil Joseph, suffered a major blow when they lost goalkicking half-back Luke Gale with ankle ligament damage only nine minutes into the game and they found themselves trailing 16-0 after 22 minutes.
Full-back Sam Tomkins, a constant thorn in Bradford's side, did the early damage, joining the line and helped create an overlap for Goulding to send his winger Charnley over for the game's first try.
When stand-off Brett Finch carved out a simple touchdown for Richards and second rower Gareth Hock sidestepped past full-back Brett Kearney for a third try, the game looked to be over.
But Bradford left-winger Jason Crookes stopped the rot when he touched down Kearney's pinpoint kick to the corner on 29 minutes.
Jeered by fans
Former Crusaders half-back Jarrod Sammut, jeered by the Bulls fans after twice failing to find touch with penalty kicks, made amends by landing the touchline conversion and then brought the crowd to its feet with an 80-metre breakaway try, pouncing on a loose pass from Tomkins and accelerating away.
That made it 16-10 but Bradford undid much of their good work by conceding a sloppy try to Wigan substitute Chris Tuson, who forced his way over from close range four minutes before half-time.
Richards' third goal made it 22-10 and Wigan ran in five more tries in the third quarter to put the result beyond doubt.
They extended their lead within 90 seconds of the restart when Goulding made the most of some soft tackling to open his account for the season before Tuson took Finch's defence-splitting pass to wrongfoot Kearney for his second try.
A touchline break from Richards set up the position for Tuson to send fellow back rower Liam Farrell and, with the winger clearly winded by his efforts, Tomkins kicked the conversion.
It was all too easy for the Warriors as Goulding and Charnley both scored their second tries,
Bradford pulled a try back through Kearney, one of their better players, and Sammut kicked a second goal, but Richards fittingly had the final say when he broke clear to send Farrell over for his second try and kicked his sixth conversion.
