Wakefield Trinity second after five-try win over Bradford Bulls
In-form Wakefield moved second in the Betfred Super League as they battled to a 26-12 win over Bradford at Odsal.
Trinity – chasing a fifth straight victory – got off to a flying start when Tom Johnstone went over in the corner to score the opening try inside two minutes, as Bradford had looked to regroup after losing Loghan Lewis to injury during the warm-up.
Isaiah Vagana and Bradford’s Caleb Aekins had tried disallowed before Ethan Ryan got the Bulls on the board after 21 minutes when he collected a high kick to bundle over.
Ryan was soon sent to the sin bin for an in-air collision with Wakefield full-back Josh Rourke and Trinity made their advantage count as Will Tate got the ball down to extend the lead on the half-hour.
Bulls saw second-row Dan Russell go off for a head injury assessment – he was later taken to hospital for further assessment on an eye problem sustained in the collision – before a penalty from Luke Hooley reduced the deficit to 10-6 at half-time.
Jay Pitts darted through a defensive gap for another Wakefield try after the restart, with Ryan then seeing his effort ruled out for a knock-on. The Bulls, though, rallied again when Jayden Nikorima offloaded to Chris Atkin, with Hooley’s conversion cutting the gap down to four points after 52 minutes.
Bradford thought they had another try just after the hour when Nikorima reached over, but Rourke slid in to block the ball with his knee and the video referee upheld the on-field decision of no try.
Wakefield eventually stemmed the flow of relentless pressure when a lengthy video review cleared a try from Rourke in the corner after a high kick was fumbled on the line. With three minutes left, Harvey Smith barged over from close range as Trinity moved above Wigan, who have a match in hand.
Wakefield boss Daryl Powell praised the way his side dug in to get themselves over the line.
“I just thought Bradford were great, they really came after us, but it is about winning at times when you are not quite at your best and we did that tonight,” said on Sky Sports +.
“We dug our way out of it and at the end there, it ended up probably being a little bit more uncomfortable than the game was.”
Bradford boss Kurt Haggerty, who confirmed Russell’s eye socket injury appeared “pretty bad”, added: “We had a big focus in the week of winning back-to-back (games) and trying to beat a team in the top six, so we went close.
“It is a step in the right direction but again, we will never be valiant losers and I’m pretty devastated.”