Bulls rampage past Cats

Wakefield slumped to a sixth straight defeat as Bradford turned around an early 10-0 deficit to win 29-10 at Hearwell Stadium.

Aaron Murphy and Paul Johnson crossed for the Wildcats, but after dominating for long periods they allowed Chris Nero to go over in the last minute of the first half.

Steve Menzies then dotted down just after the break, Nero claimed his fifth try in two games, and Wayne Godwin and Heath L'Estrange scored late on as the Bulls climbed to fourth in the table.

Wakefield came in for some heavy pressure early on and, after facing four consecutive sets, it took a marvellous covering tackle from Sean Gleeson to deny Stuart Reardon an early score in the corner.

But the Wildcats scored on their first meaningful venture downfield with 10 minutes on the clock.

After being awarded a penalty right on Bradford line, Cooke opted to tap and Sam Obst jinked his way towards the line but came up short.

And when the ball was worked in the opposite direction, Murphy took a great ball from Gleeson and crashed over in one swift movement.

Cooke failed to add the extras from out wide, but he succeeded with the boot when the hosts extended their lead in the 16th minute.

Obst was again taking on defenders and when the little scrum-half was finally halted, a quick play-the-ball and a Tevita Leo-Latu pass allowed second row Johnson to burrow his way over.

Crucial lift

Bradford were struggling to live with the high tempo, but they hit back late in the half to give themselves a crucial lift. Aussie centre Nero took Sykes' pass and squeezed over in the corner despite Obst racing back to try and tackle him into touch.

The hooter had already gone when Sykes struck his unsuccessful conversion but the Bulls needed just two second-half minutes to score again.

After the Wildcats coughed up possession near their own try-line, L'Estrange produced a clever little grubber through and 36-year-old Menzies beat a host of defenders to plant the ball on the whitewash for a try converted by Sykes.

Bradford then scored again four minutes later when full-back Dave Halley cleverly drew the defence, before the ball found its way to eventual try-scorer Nero via the hands of Elliott Whitehead.

Still with plenty to do, Nero scorched past Damien Blanch and arrowed for the line with Murphy looking to force him into touch. Sykes missed the conversion but added a penalty and kicked a drop-goal with 15 minutes remaining.

Wakefield needed to muster a quick response but the points were all but secured when Godwin scampered over from acting half-back in the closing stages, using skipper Andy Lynch as his foil for a try converted by Sykes.

L'Estrange added some gloss to the scoreline when he touched down his own kick through, after it rebounded kindly for him off the foot of the upright.