Wolves tear Bulls to bits
Warrington won on the road for the first time since last July with an emphatic 58-22 victory over Bradford at Odsal.
Last Updated: 18/04/09 5:05pm
Warrington won on the road for the first time since last July with an emphatic 58-22 victory over Bradford at Odsal.
Chris Hicks chalked up 30 points, scoring three of his side's 10 tries and kicking nine goals as the Wolves increased the pressure on Bradford coach Steve McNamara.
Warrington were relentless throughout the 80 minutes with Mick Higham also touching down twice on an embarrassing night for the Bulls.
Louis Anderson, Matt King, Chris Riley, Paul Johnson and Lee Briers also got on the scoresheet with the lacklustre Bulls managing just a David Solomona double and further consolations from Michael Platt and Ben Jeffries.
The Wolves looked much better than a side 13th in the table as they blitzed Bradford to open up a 34-10 lead at the interval.
The early warning signs were there for the Bulls as Adrian Morley burst through a gap and was halted only by a last-ditch tackle from Dave Halley.
King was lucky to win a scrum feed after throwing a poor pass straight at Bradford's Rikki Sheriffe but the Wolves capitalised to open the scoring after five minutes.
Anderson claimed the try as he hit Michael Monaghan's pass at speed.
Hicks then scored his first try five minutes later after slack work by the Bulls defence.
The hosts were slow to react as Chris Bridge brilliantly flicked on a Briers pass for Hicks in the corner.
Hicks, back in his familiar wing role, grabbed his second soon after as he cut inside to finish off a move involving Briers and Ben Westwood.
Warrington were almost out of sight after just 20 minutes as Briers found space to pick out an unattended King with a high kick.
The Bulls managed to stem the flow as Solomona came off the bench to barge his way over but normal service was soon resumed.
Johnson fielded a Bradford kick and passed to Riley inside his own 10-metre line.
Pace
There seemed little danger as Riley sprinted forward but he put his pace to the test with a kick ahead and superbly won the race with Halley to gather for a length-of-the-field try.
The boos then rang out around Odsal as Warrington claimed a sixth try before the break through Johnson out wide.
Bradford finished the half with another try through Platt but the Wolves piled on more misery just 15 seconds after the resumption.
Sheriffe inexplicably pushed the kick-off back into his own in-goal area from the dead-ball line and the onrushing Higham slid in to score.
Solomona forced his way over for his second try soon after but it was a brief respite as Briers, on his return from injury, weaved his way through several tackles for another Wolves score.
Bulls fans started heading for the exits on the hour as Hicks seized on a loose ball to race in for his hat-trick and bring up the half-century.
Higham added another as he slid through the posts to reach another piercing Warrington kick, before Jeffries managed a late but immaterial score for the hosts.