Leeds Rhinos 34 Bradford Bulls 14

JAMIE Peacock tasted victory in his testimonial match this afternoon as the Bulls slipped to defeat against their old rivals.

The game was played to honour the most decorated player in Super League history but the Rhinos showed their class to establish a 24-0 interval lead.

Tom Briscoe intercepted Lee Gaskell’s over-ambitious pass to race 65 metres before sending Kallum Watkins over for his first try of the match.

Leeds struck again in the 16th minute when Danny McGuire found Carl Ablett and took the return pass on the blindside before waltzing over the line.

The Bulls defended doggedly at times but created precious little in attack and Leeds grabbed their third try in the 36th minute as veteran prop Kylie Leulai went under the posts from Joel Moon’ short pass.

Watkins claimed his second try on the stroke of half-time after crossing in the right corner and Kevin Sinfield’s fourth goal made it 24-0.

Yet the response from the Bulls was to be applauded as they hit back with two tries in quick succession in the third quarter of the match.

First, Ryan Shaw hacked the ball forward down the right flank before grounding in the corner and then, after trialist Charlie Martin had a try disallowed for a forward pass by Gaskell, Chris Ulugia added a second for Bradford.

Gaskell found him in the right corner and Ulugia finished with aplomb after replacing full-back Jake Mullaney, who limped off with an apparent leg injury.

 Leeds re-established control when Jamie Jones-Buchanan barrelled over the line and Joel Moon powered through a tiring Bradford defence to score in the left corner.

Under-19s rookie Ethan Ryan replaced Danny Williams on the left wing with just over ten minutes remaining before Ross Oakes and Liam Kirk came off the bench late on too.

The Bulls looked ring-rusty at times, particularly during the first half, following the postponement of the visit of Huddersfield seven days earlier, but Gaskell had the final say for Bradford with a  breakaway try late on.

Peacock, meanwhile, enjoyed a typically influential game as a bumper crowd of 11,608 turned up to the honour the former Great Britain captain.