Bradford Bulls bullied by soaring Sheffield Eagles

Bradford Bulls suffered their first defeat of the campaign losing 14-28 to Sheffield Eagles at Odsal.

Despite starting well after Kieran Gill’s early try, the Bulls found the wet and wild conditions hard to adapt to and were dominated by Sheffield Eagles who were much more clinical in the second half.

Tries from Liam Johnson, Vila Halafihi, Ross Oakes and Anthony Thackeray added to the conversion goals from Izaac Farrell helped Sheffield to their first win of the season.

As mentioned, it started well for the Bulls as Gill was fed the ball and barged his way over to the line to open the scoring for the hosts.

As the conditions worsened, the game turned quieter with the weather and pitch proving difficult for both sides to really break each other down.

Towards the end of the half, however, the visitors levelled after back-to-back sets as Johnson pushed his way through to level things up just before half-time.

That try seemed to wake the Eagles up, and after the interval, they thought had scored again but it was chalked off due to obstruction.

Up until then, the Bulls had not done much but kept the score ticking over. Billy Jowitt’s grubber kick hit a Sheffield man only for it to be gobbled up by vice-captain Rhys Evans who bundled his way over.

Straight after that, Sheffield responded. A push from Evans when his teammate Ryan Millar had the ball resulted in the Eagles getting the ball right in front of the posts and ex-Bulls man Vila Halafihi was there to score the try.

With the scores level after a silly mistake, the Bulls needed a response, and from a fresh set on the last tackle, George Flanagan was taken out by a high hit resulting in a penalty 10 metres out. Bulls opted for the kick despite the urge of the crowd to go for the try and Dec Patton kicked over to give the Bulls a slender lead.

However, a costly mistake once again proved crucial for the Bulls. A low kick from Sheffield was not dealt with by Steve Crossley resulting in more pressure from the Eagles and a try. Thackeray kicked the ball through and Oakes dived in to touch down under the posts.

Things went from bad to worse for the home side as Patton’s 20-metre drop-out went backwards awarding Sheffield another penalty and Farrell added an extra two points.

Soon the game was done and dusted. Failure to deal with a kick caused even more problems for the hosts. Early scorer Johnson this time turned provider for Thackeray who went over underneath the posts.

Patton, who had caused an error in Sheffield’s first goal, soon had to sit out the last two minutes after being sin-binned for a silly tackle on halfway. This resulted in another goal for the Eagles and another for Thackeray who added an extra two to dampen the day even more for the Bulls.

Whilst Sheffield soared, the Bulls were bullied. The Eagles’ spirits will be lifted after their opening day defeat to Barrow Raiders and they travel to West Yorkshire again next week to play Dewsbury Rams.

For the Bulls, work is to be done ahead of their first taste of Monday Night Rugby on Premier Sports with a tough test against one of the league favourites, Leigh Centurions.

Follow us on Twitter @ProstInt