Bulls hold off Crusaders

Bradford claimed their first win of the new engage Super League season as they held off a late Crusaders fightback to win 30-26 at the Racecourse Ground.

The Bulls led 30-10 in the second half but were hanging on by the end after the Crusaders launched a stirring late rally.

The Welsh side just ran out of steam and the hooter came just in time for a Bradford outfit who had already suffered an agonising late collapse in losing their season-opener to Leeds.

New Bulls boss Mick Potter, who gave a debut to former Wigan winger Shaun Ainscough, will have been delighted with the performance of 19-year-old Danny Addy, who combined effectively with the ever-dangerous Brett Kearney in helping to fill the void created by injuries to half-backs Kyle Briggs and Marc Herbert.

It was Ainscough whose 30-metre break set up the position for Bryn Hargreaves to send fellow front rower Andy Lynch over for the game's first try just nine minutes in.

Crusaders drew level midway through the first half when stand-off Michael Witt dummied his way past L'Estrange for his fourth try in three games, with skipper Clinton Schifcofske adding the conversion.

The Bradford defence was much-improved from the one that leaked eight tries against Wigan last weekend, although Crusaders missed a glorious tryscoring opportunity when forward Adam Peek dropped the final pass from Jason Chan, who had neatly re-gathered his own chip.

When the home side opted to target Ainscough under the high ball, Gareth Thomas twice went close but the Bulls held firm and struck with two tries in a seven-minute spell before half-time.

Full-back Shad Royston scored his first for the club after taking an inside pass from Addy and then Ainscough finished off a mazy move which featured no fewer than seven passes, after Brett Kearney had put in a kick on the last tackle.

Good value

With Patrick Ah Van converting all three touchdowns, the Bulls were good value for their 18-6 interval lead and they went further ahead within 90 seconds of the restart when replacement hooker Matt Diskin burrowed his way over from dummy half.

That sparked a tremendous fightback from the Crusaders, with Thomas scoring his third try in 14 Super League appearances - his first in his new centre role - and the outstanding Chan held up on his back over the line.

There was no way back for the home side once winger Rhys Williams dropped Gil Dudson's pass with the line breached and L'Estrange made sure of Bradford's win when he pounced on a handling error by Thomas to register a fifth try.

Ah Van maintained his 100% record with the boot to make it 30-10, but Crusaders breached the determined Bradford defence with three further tries in the last 10 minutes.

Scrum-half Jarrod Sammut jinked his way over, Schifcofske was given the benefit of the doubt by the video referee when he forced his way through a melee of defenders and centre Tony Martin grabbed a consolation in the last move of the match.

On this evidence Bradford look like play-off contenders and the only disappointment for the visitors was the loss of centre Chev Walker and hooker Heath L'Estrange to injuries.