Halley's star is rising after Rams revenge

All eyes may have been on Semi Tadulala as he made his Bulls debut but it was another winger who soon grabbed the attention today.

Wakefield signing Tadulala looked really sharp considering this was his first game since breaking an arm in March, and the signs are he could be a big hit at Bradford.

But it was Dave Halley who had people talking following a scintillating performance in the club's opening pre-season friendly - an impressive win over Dewsbury.

Twelve months earlier, the youngster had a complete nightmare in the same fixture with a horror-filled performance.

But he bounced back to make his Super League debut and did enough to win a new deal before showing the sort of form today that will have Tadulala sweating as the battle for 2008 places heats up.

Halley operated at full back as a youthful Bulls side, featuring eight under-18s, clinically dispatched their National League One opponents but his class shone through.

He scored one spectacular 90-metre interception try, produced a sizzling run to create another for skipper Richard Johnson, made a series of searing breaks and returned kicks with interest all afternoon.

With all his Super League stars absent, boss Steve McNamara had decided to play Halley and Matt James to add some experience to the squad and they both stood up to deliver, with the visitors amassing a comfortable 24-0 interval lead.

Prop Neil Cherryholme led from the front with a huge effort, while Luke Helliwell controlled and kicked well from No 6.

Centre Johnson delivered a performance that shows why he was promoted to the first-team squad last week, while slippery hooker George Flanagan also buzzed around after coming off the bench.

The Bulls were always in control during that first half. They withstood one bout of pressure with some spirited on-line defence, and Tadulala showed great awareness to come in off his wing to smash Andrew Bostock when Dewsbury did threaten.

Likewise, Helliwell did enough to force Bryn Powell to drop the ball as the Rams winger dived for the corner at the next play.

Then Bradford got off the mark on 14 minutes courtesy of some fine inventive play from the menacing Halley.

His electric pace set him free down the middle, cutting open the Rams and after stepping the referee, Halley put Johnson clear.

The Academy skipper then showed a cool touch to dummy the cover defence and steam in under the posts.

Halley's quick thinking saw him race 60 metres soon after, having taken a kick behind his own line, and then quickly tapped the 20 restart to leave Rams defenders in his wake.

He was finally hauled in but the Bulls were in again when Danny Garside's long pass was expertly controlled by Jason Crookes, who then found winger Eddie Kilroy as he hit the deck.

Dewsbury replacement Gary North was sin-binned on 25 minutes for holding down Flanagan after the Bulls hooker had streaked clear down the middle again and the visitors capitalised when Keith Shack-leton added a third try off Garside's tricky grubber.

Helliwell improved once more before Halley showed his class with that interception just before the break.

Dewsbury raised their game after the restart and began to find more openings in the Bulls defence.

Former Wakefield winger Austin Buchanan almost scored after hacking on a loose pass but the ball just ran dead.

Dewsbury did trouble the scorers though when Luke Haigh got on the end of a Josh Weeden kick that had ricocheted through the visiting defence, leaving Halley hapless and wrong-footed.

Liam Finn added the conversion and, realising they had nothing to lose, Andy Kelly's side applied plenty more pressure as the game wore on.

The Bulls scrambled well though, coming up with three big defensive plays in one set to frustrates their rivals.

First they denied Powell over the line at the corner, then battled to hold Jon Gledhill up over the whitewash before Tadulala cleaned out former Bull David Clayton with a copybook tackle on the last.

It took until the 68th minute for Dewsbury to get some reward, Richard Chapman's booming 40-20 setting up the position for the hooker to finally send Powell in.

The Bulls - who head to Wakefield on Friday night - responded with a much-deserved try for Flanagan, who had caused problems all afternoon with his darts from dummy half but Dewsbury had the last word through Weeden.