Airlie Birds soar into semis

Matt Sing scored two tries as Super League strugglers Hull claimed a shock 22-16 Challenge Cup quarter-final win over Bradford.

The Black And Whites gave Richard Agar a dream start to his reign as head coach by withstanding a ferocious second-half assault from the Bulls.

Eleventh in Super League and out of the play-off race, Hull's season was on the line but after this gutsy win they can dream of a trip to Wembley in August.

A scrappy, penalty-strewn opening in tricky conditions saw Iestyn Harris and Danny Tickle exchange two penalties apiece before referee Steve Ganson finally lost his patience and sent Bradford's Ben Jeffries to the bin after 23 minutes for holding down in the tackle.

Three minutes later Lee Radford joined him and Harris edged the Bulls ahead again.

Trouble

Hull looked to be in real trouble when Jamie Thackray was also sent to the sin-bin for back-chat after the former Great Britain prop knocked on, but remarkably they grabbed the opening try when down to 11 men.

More like smash and grab, as with a four on one overlap Harris sailed out a looping pass and Sing shot forward to intercept and race 90 metres to score.

Even with a two-man advantage when Jeffries returned, Bradford could not score and after David Halley became the fourth man to be yellow-carded for delaying a re-start, Hull scored again just before the break.

The try came from the move of the match as Danny Washbrook made the break and Graeme Horne and Adam Dykes combined to put Todd Byrne in.

That gave Hull a 16-6 lead and two-minutes into the second half they scored again. They fooled the Bradford defence by running the ball on the sixth tackle and Tickle set Sing up for his second try.

Brilliant

The rest of the half belonged to the Bulls.

Sam Burgess' brilliant offload under the posts set up Tame Tupou for a try and Bradford would have been right back in it had Terry Newton not had a try chalked off for offside.

They did get to within a score two minutes from time after Paul Sykes got in at the corner, but the Hull defence held firm.