HULL KR 40 BRADFORD BULLS 16
JAMES CHESTNEY, Sewell Group Craven Park, Friday

HULL KR routed Bradford on their first time back at Craven Park in nine years.

Robins’ head coach Willie Peters shuffled his side around going into this one, bringing in Ryan Hampshire to replace Arthur Mourgue in the halves who has sustained a broken wrist whilst Tom Amone came in for Sauaso Sue.

Rhyse Martin took Amone’s place on the bench having being 18th man in the win over Hull FC last weekend, with injuries giving Alfie Leake the chance to make his Bradford debut.

It was the home side who opened the scoring on six minutes as the ball went through the hands of Hampshire and Oliver Gildart to find Joe Burgess on his outside. The wingman dived over in the corner for his 199th career score. Hampshire, though, couldn’t add the two points.

The Bulls soon hit back as a Joe Mellor grubber kick was not dealt with by Jack Broadbent and Guy Armitage dived on the loose ball to score. Luke Hooley matched Hampshire by missing his conversion.

In an end-to-end game though it was Rovers that found the next score as Broadbent made up for his mistake to take a Dean Hadley offload to race away to score. This time Hampshire was successful to make it 10-4 after 14 minutes.

Along with conceding the try, Bradford also lost Phoenix Steinwede to a HIA which he subsequently passed.

But, Rovers firmed up their advantage with 15 minutes of the half left whilst the visitors were down to twelve with Ryan Sutton being shown a green card.

Tyrone May broke down the wing and rounded three Bulls defenders to score in a classy move. Hampshire added the conversion.

With six minutes left to play Connor Wynne took a Hampshire high kick on his own line and he ran the full length of the field to score despite the best efforts of Hampshire who couldn’t quite catch him. Hooley added the two points to get the Bulls back to within one score.

Just like the first-half the second started with a Burgess try as a cut-out pass was thrown by Hampshire and Burgess bagged his 200th career score. Hampshire extended the lead with another two points.

That lead was inflated further as Hampshire put Gildart through a gap and he found Jez Litten to go over. Rhyse Martin took over the kicking duties.

The game was finally taken away from the visitors just after the hour as Tom Davies was played in by Peta Hiku and he rounded a bulls defender to score. Martin made it two from two to make it 34-10.

The Bulls did get a consolation with ten minutes to go, Andy Ackers going over from dummy-half with Hooley adding the two points.

But, the night belonged to Rovers and night and they hit 40 points late on as Litten found a gap in the Bulls defence to play in captain Elliot Minchella who went under the posts.

Martin added the final two points to give Rovers a 40-16 victory.

GAMESTAR: Jez Litten led his side round field and topped it off with a try as well.

GAMEBREAKER: Tom Davies’ try in the second half which took away any chance of a Bulls comeback.

HIGHLIGHT REEL: Tyrone May’s try as he saw off five defenders along the touchline to score.

ALBERT GOLDTHORPE POINTS
3 pts Jez Litten (Hull KR)
2 pts Tyrone May (Hull KR)
1 pt Joe Burgess (Hull KR)

MATCHFACTS

HULL KR
14 Jack Broadbent
2 Tom Davies
3 Peta Hiku
4 Oliver Gildart
5 Joe Burgess
34 Ryan Hampshire
7 Tyrone May
11 Dean Hadley
9 Jez Litten
10 Tom Amone
16 Jai Whitbread
12 James Batchelor
13 Elliot Minchella
Subs (all used)
15 Sam Luckley
17 Rhyse Martin
19 Karl Lawton
20 Jordan Dezaria
18th man (not used)
22 Bill Leyland
Also in 21-man squad
21 Noah Booth
24 Jack Charles
33 Frankie Dearlove

Tries: Burgess (6, 48), Broadbent (14), May (27), Litten (53), Davies (56), Minchella (76)
Goals: Hampshire 3/4, Martin 3/3

BULLS
1 Caleb Aekins
23 Connor Wynne
22 Luke Hooley
24 Guy Armitage
5 Ethan Ryan
38 Riley Dean
32 Chris Atkin
8 Ryan Sutton
9 Andy Ackers
19 Will Gardiner
12 Zac Fulton
34 Phoenix Steinwede
13 Joe Mellor
Subs (all used)
10 Loghan Lewis
27 Alfie Leake (D)
28 Jamie Gill
39 Thomas Doyle
18th man (not used)
25 Eliot Peposhi
Also in 20-man squad
16 Ebon Scurr
– Harvey Ward

Tries: Armitage (9), Wynne (35), Ackers (71)
Goals: Hooley 2/3

SCORING SEQUENCE: 4-0, 4-4, 10-4, 16-4, 16-10; 22-10, 28-10, 34-10, 34-16, 40-16

Rugby Leaguer & League Express Men of the Match
Hull KR: Jez Litten; Bulls: Joe Mellor

Penalty count: 5-4
Half-time: 16-10
Referee: Tom Grant