Derby Thriller

By leedsrhinos.biz
September 3 2007

Yet another West Yorkshire derby - in fact it was the fourth and last of this regular season - and the Bradford Bulls were looking to celebrate in style at their 100 year celebration. A greasy park and big pack of forwards were what Leeds were going to have to cope with, and in the end, a draw was a fair result and hardly makes a difference in our race for the top spot. We've got a full match repo

Match Report

Bradford Bulls v Leeds Rhinos

Odsal Stadium

Bradford (8) 16
Try: Lynch, B Harris, Evans
Goal: Deacon 2

Leeds (0) 16
Tries: Penalty, Donald 2
Goals: Sinfield 2

Yet another West Yorkshire derby - in fact it was the fourth and last of this regular season - and the Bradford Bulls were looking to celebrate in style at their 100 year celebration.

It was tipping it down all day previous to the clash although throughout the game the Odsal sky had cleared yet the park was still greasy causing both sides players to slip.

Guess what, Bradford's head coach Steve McNamara has once again battered the match officials just as I have been writing this match report. Here is what both of the head coaches said on the engage Super League website:

McNamara insisted that Donald’s second try came from a knock-on and described a decision by the fourth official to award a penalty try to Leeds hooker Matt Diskin early in the second half as "harsh".

Diskin appeared to lose the ball in the acting of scoring but Silverwood ruled that full-back Michael Platt had stripped the ball illegally.

"If my full-back does not tackle the ball, he gets a roasting from me," said McNamara. "He has to stop the try being scored.

"The player let go of the ball and Michael said if he had kept hold of it he would have slid his body underneath to prevent the try being scored.

McNamara received support from an unlikely source in Leeds coach Tony Smith, the Great Britain boss, who claimed the rule "stinks".

"It was something that was decided at the start of the season," said Smith. "I don’t like it but the referee had no alternative but to award the try."

The result keeps Bradford four points behind the Rhinos with two matches left and means they are virtually certain to finish the regular season in third place.

"I thought we did enough to win the game," said McNamara. "We had enough field position and enough possession but Leeds defended manfully."

"It was a game of two halves," said Smith. "We got busted, out-wrestled in the first half but we did something about it in the second half.

"We stood up for ourselves and turned it around. Both teams defended well and showed a lot of desperation on the tryline."

The game started with a good few sets from Bradford, and Leeds were soon on the back foot. Both sides were making some stupid mistakes early on but it wasn't long before the defending side made a mistake although it was after repeat sets.

On fifteen Solomona was held at the line by JP but the Rhinos defence were not expecting Andy Lynch to break five tackles before crossing the white-wash. With the Deacon conversion the score was now 6-0 to the Bulls.

A few minutes later and the Bulls added another two on the board after Gareth Ellis took out Deacon straight after a kick although it looked different on the action-replay at Odsal.

Nothing much happened in the rest of the first half. Bradford spent almost thirty minutes in Leeds' half yet we were only in the Bulls' ten minutes, and most of that was in the last quarter of the half.

Just five minutes into the second half and Diskin crossed the line but had the ball stolen just as he was touching down. The video ref Silverwood awarded a penalty try and Sinfield added the extras. The score was now 8-6 and we were right back in it.

But Leeds made a mistake straight from kick off as centre Harris touched down after Marcus St Hilaire collected Iestyn Harris' cross-field kick to the corner. Baby-faced Deacon failed to convert but due to the earlier penalty, they were still a converted try ahead of us. That earlier kick proved to be crucial.

Fifty minutes had passed as Tansey put pressure on his own defence after knocking on, but soon after JJB put out a brilliant off-load to McGuire who grubbered to speedy Donald who collected just in front of the Bulls line to score. The conversion was missed but the deficit was down to two.

Ten minutes later Burrow was fouled but Sinfield missed the attempt at goal from the half way mark although Leeds did get the ball back.

Only ten minutes remaining and the Rhinos came up with the goods. A McGuire kick on the fifth tackle was knocked behind St. Hilaire as Donald came steaming in and collected the loose ball and go over the line to score what both sets of fans thought was the winner. One of the longest video ref decisions this season resulted in T-R-Y in favour of Leeds on the big screen. Sinfield slotted the kick and the score was 16-12.

But the game was by far over:

Two minutes were left on the clock and the defence failed to keep Bradford at bay and after keeping the ball alive for so long Solomona passed out wide to Evans to score.

Overall this game didn't really make a difference in our race for the minor premiership. If Saints slip up (as we needed them to before) against Wigan and we win the next two games against Hull FC and Wakefield, we will still grab that league leaders trophy.

We'll see you next week back at Headingley on Friday night when the Leeds Rhinos take on Hull FC.

Bradford: Platt, St Hilaire, B. Harris, Evans, McAvoy, I. Harris, Deacon, Vagana, Newton, Lynch, McKenna, Solomona, Morrison.
Replacements: Burgess, Feather, Henderson, Cook.

Leeds: Tansey, Donald, Toopi, Senior, Smith, McGuire, Burrow, Peacock, Diskin, Bailey, Jones-Buchanan, Ellis, Sinfield.
Replacements: Thackray, Lauitiiti, Ablett, Leuluai.

Att: 18,195

Referee: P. Bentham

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