Bradford Bulls continue impressive upturn in form as they smash past Dewsbury Rams

Bradford Bulls continued their upturn in form and continued their playoff push alive with a 48-6 win over Dewsbury Rams.

Tries from Ryan Millar, Elliot Kear, Kieran Gill, Steve Crossley, Jordan Lilley, Samy Kibula and a double from Chester Butler helped the Bulls to a fifth victory under Mark Dunning since he took over on an interim basis from John Kear.

Dunning is in the running for the vacant position with interviews taking place this week for the head coach role.

He has helped mastermind an upturn in form for the Bulls which has seen the playoff hopes kept alive for Bradford.

Visitors from down the M62, Dewsbury, had been on a rotten run of form but welcomed new head coach Liam Finn for his first game in charge.

Finn’s side almost grabbed an early lead, Paul Sykes’s swirling kick fooled the Bradford defence and was regathered by teammate Jordan Gabriel who played it wide, but the Bulls recuperated and managed to bring the man down.

The score would have been opened by the Bulls, a lovely move to the left found Millar who claimed his sixth try of the season in at the corner.

Another error nearly gave the visitors a way back. Millar dropped the ball from a kick and could not regather the ball which nearly led to David Dixon going over the line, but Millar got there in time to kick away.

The visitors did level, 14 minutes before the break, a neat move to the right found Gabriel in behind who ran over the line.

However, just before halftime, following sustained pressure from the Bulls, they finally broke through. Kear received the ball and barged his way through and dropped the ball over the line to swing the game back in the Bulls favour.

Bradford weren’t finished there. Jordan Lilley fed Butler who danced his way from the 20-metre line round the Dewsbury defence and dived over to give the Bulls a two try advantage at the break.

Butler doubled his tally for the day shortly after the restart. He managed to ground the ball on the line to further the Bulls advantage.

It was soon a score of 30 for the Bulls. Dec Patton kicked through the defence and the ball was latched onto by Kieran Gill who pounced to the ground the ball.

The hosts were proving too tough for their opponents. From a set restart on 20 metres, Crossley battled his way through and placed the ball down and it wasn’t long before 40 mark was soon broken as Lilley ducked and dodged the Rams defence to sprint over the line.

More polish was added to the win for the Bulls, Kibula won the ball on the 30 metres and swerved his way round the defence to have the freedom of Odsal to walk over and finish off a fantastic win for the Bulls.

Finn’s side are left with work to do after another thumping at the hands of the Bradford Bulls. They face a tough test against Halifax Panthers at the Tetley’s Stadium next weekend.

The Bulls also face a tough test as they welcome League Leaders Leigh Centurions to Odsal.

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