It was a great following from Bradford as the Bulls got an almost forgotten taste of Super League opposition when they travelled to the Halliwell Jones Stadium to take on the high flying Warrington Wolves.
John Kear, the Bulls coach, is no stranger to cup shocks having coached the Sheffield Eagles side who upset the odds and defeated Wigan at Wembley in 1998, and the Hull FC side who beat the Rhinos in Cardiff in 2005.
Warrington made wholesale changes, welcoming the opportunity to rest a few regular first teamers but Bradford had their best line-up available to hunt the upset.
It was a pretty even opening ten minutes, but Chris Hill opened the scoring when he took a Declan Patton pass to go over by the upright. Stefan Ratchford kicked the conversion between the posts for a 6-0 lead.
Two minutes later and Ben Currie stepped through a broken Bulls defence to get the second as the Wolves outpaced the defence. Ratchford couldn’t add the extras.
Bryson Goodwin stepped and spun his way to the line on sixteen for the third try in a devastating six minute spell. Ratchford added the conversion for 16-0 as Warrington dominated the scoreboard.
On twenty-one Currie got his second, returning a Bradford drop out, to go over under the sticks. Ratchford added the extras for 22-0 in as many minutes. Two minutes later Josh Charnley made easy work of a weak Bulls defence to dive in at the corner. Ratchford was unable to add the touchline conversion.
The Bulls defence held firm for the remainder of the half and they went close to scoring themselves with five minutes left on the first half clock. But one minute from the interval Charnley got his second of the afternoon, a walk in down the wing. Ratchford missed the conversion for a 30-0 half time lead.
Three minutes after the restart Charnley took a sensational Ryan Atkins offload to go over in the corner for a twenty minute hat-trick. Bryson Goodwin took over the kicking duties and kicked the conversion.
Charnleys fourth came on forty-seven with a walk over as the man on the overlap when he took an Atkins pass. The last three of his four coming in just eight minutes. Goodwin converted brilliantly from the touchline for 42-0.
On fifty-seven Goodwin got the Wolves ninth try of the afternoon and added the extras himself as the Bulls had no answer to the full-timers speed or handling. Three minutes later and Goodwin ran in a sixty metre breakaway try to complete his hat-trick and give himself a simple angle for the conversion to bring up the half century at 54-0.
The Wolves put the cue on the rack for the last twenty and Joe Keyes grabbed a seventy-seventh minute consolation try for the Bulls when he stepped through a gap and went over. Keyes added the conversion himself for 6-54.
The result was never in doubt but the winning margin could have been much larger if the Wolves hadn’t taken their foot off the gas once the fifty points barrier was breached. Bradford put up a brave fight but were outclassed by the professional outfit who ultimately cruised into the draw on Wednesday morning for the sixth round.
Wolves: Ratchford (3G), Charnley (4T), Goodwin (3T, 4G), Atkins, Brown, Patton, Roberts, Hill (T), Smith, Akauola, Currie (2T), Hughes, King. Subs: Philbin, Livett, Westwood, Moran.
Bulls: Pickersgill, Grant, Gibson, Oakes, Ryan, Keyes (T, G), Minchella, Kirk, Halafihi, Crossley, Garside, Johnson, Milton. Subs: Flanagan, Peltier, Bustin, Wood.
Half Time: 30-0.
Full Time: 54-6.
Referee: Tom Grant.
Attendance: 4,710.
