Warriors tear Bulls apart

Pat Richards: hat-trick for Wigan

Wigan warmed up for next week's Challenge Cup final in impressive style with a 60-12 demolition of Bradford.

Man of Steel Pat Richards scored a hat-trick as the Warriors ran in 12 tries on their way to going three points clear of Warrington at the Super League summit.

Bradford were competitive for 40 minutes and only trailed 18-12 at the break, but collapsed in the second half as Wigan - inspired by Sam Tomkins - ran in tries almost at will.

The Bulls came into the game on the back of an appalling second half display at home to Hull KR last week and were quickly behind against the champions.

There were just three minutes on the clock when the defence failed to deal with a Sam Tomkins bomb and George Carmont dived over from dummy half on the blindside.

A fine pass from Sean O'Loughlin then put Ryan Hoffman in and Wigan were into double figures within seven minutes.

The Bulls survived a Patrick Ah Van knock-on in his in-goal area shortly afterwards, but there was no escape when the winger dropped the ball in-goal on 20 minutes and Carmont touched down the gift.

The Bulls were under the cosh but managed to score from their only two attacks of the half, both tries coming from kicks.

First Marc Herbert's kick was cleverly flicked back by Brett Kearney for Craig Kopczak to score, then Paul Sykes did a similar job from Ben Jeffries' kick to set up John Bateman for his first Super League try.

Wonderful

Those scores sandwiched Pat Richards' try in the corner following a wonderful handling move involving O'Loughlin, Sam Tomkins and Carmont, but with the Aussie for once having an off day with the boot, the lead was just 18-12 at the break despite Wigan's almost total dominance.

But the Bulls' toehold in the game could not last.

Two minutes into the second half Andy Lynch knocked on in his own 40 and Liam Farrell sent Sam Tomkins ghosting under the posts.

Another flowing move then put Josh Charnley in at the corner, before Sam Tomkins shrugged off a high shot from Sykes to set up a try for O'Loughlin.

Paul Deacon's high kick was plucked out of the air by Richards for his second try, before Sam Tomkins picked up a loose ball five metres from his own line and raced the length of the pitch to score.

Harrison Hansen powered over for the 10th try, before Sam Tomkins scooped up another loose ball and sent Charnley racing away to score from 80 metres.

The Bulls were reeling and there was still time for Gareth Hock to stake his claim for a Wembley place with a marauding run up the centre and a brilliant back-handed offload to give Richards his hat-rick.