Bradford Bulls not good enough by half as gloom sets in

Another defeat took Mick Potter’s side past the halfway point in a so far disappointing campaign and hope is wearing seriously thin.

%eplayer(23) So too must be Potter’s patience after watching his troops chuck away yet another opportunity to put points on the board.

Hull KR were far from impressive but a combination of basic errors, poor defence and a lack of precision combined to create a scoreline that flattered the hosts.

Not that Rovers didn’t deserve the victory. They did. But the Bulls should be so much better than they are showing at the moment and so much better than the 12th place they find themselves in.

Only Wakefield and Crusaders, the two teams who started the season with points deductions, sit below Bradford in the table. Time is flying by as they bid to save the season but nobody is having fun.

That kind of desperation had led to the signing of Ben Jeffries from Wakefield last week – a bold move designed to address a lack of control in the Bulls’ play.

And, in fleeting moments, he showed signs of providing the attacking flair they have so badly missed, popping up at first receiver to play a significant part in the first try.

Picking up the ball from Heath L’Estrange, he dinked a chip towards the hosts’ goal-line. Ian Sibbit challenged, knocked the ball backwards and Kyle Briggs pounced to touch down the loose ball. Patrick Ah Van goaled and all seemed well.

But, as has so often been the case this season, Bradford failed to maintain composure immediately after scoring themselves.

Unable to put together a convincing set from the restart, they stumbled on to the back foot and allowed Rovers to make easy yards.

A knock-on from James Donaldson didn’t make matters any easier and the inevitable score came when Michael Dobson put Kris Welham through a gap on the left before adding the conversion.

The Bulls’ right-edge defence was clearly an area the hosts had identified as vulnerable because the same combination brought a second try just three minutes after their first.

Hull fortuitously earned repeat sets when Blake Green’s kick rebounded off a Bradford player and back into their possession.

A penalty provided the chance to move play wide and Dobson’s short ball allowed Welham to power through a tackle from Shad Royston on the try-line.

Despite a breathless opening 12 minutes, the game failed to go anywhere fast, mainly the result of nervousness and errors from both sides.

Briggs failed to find touch after being awarded a penalty, yet Dobson too erred with the boot, putting a touch-finder straight out on the full.

Neither of those slip-ups resulted in anything more serious than the loss of territory but a severe error in judgement by the Bulls proved far more costly.

Royston fielded a dangerous Dobson kick inside his own in-goal and, as the visitors desperately tried to escape their own end, Ah Van ended up throwing a risky one-handed offload that was knocked forward by Michael Platt.

Straight from the scrum, Green received the ball, deceived Elliott Whitehead with a vicious step and sliced through to score on the angle, Dobson adding the extras.

However, prone to the same mistakes as their opponents, Rovers provided a way back into the game.

Making a complete mess of the restart, they conceded possession and a penalty, allowing Bradford to strike when a long, cut-out pass from Jeffries gave Gareth Raynor all the time and space he needed to score in the corner.

Ah Van’s conversion closed the gap to four, yet the Bulls leaked another two tries before half-time to leave them in an altogether more difficult situation.

Both Royston and Raynor dallied when Green knocked a grubber between them and, while the pair looked expectantly at one another, Jake Webster whipped through to touch down, Dobson converting.

A failure to deal with simple attacking kicks proved to be a recurring theme, as Dobson enjoyed a huge slice of luck to claim his first try of the game.

But fortune favours the brave and he probably deserved his break, simply for being switched on and alive to the opportunity when his own kick rebounded off Tom Olbison. The Aussie scrum half had no problem converting his own try to leave the Bulls with a hill to climb.

A chance to respond went begging when Whitehead went for the line instead of opting to pass after space had opened out wide and that hill became a mountain immediately after half-time.

Within a minute of the restart Rovers blew the defence wide open, Webster breaking down the right and getting the pass away milliseconds before being taken out.

Peter Fox sped away and Liam Watts pushed through on the inside to take the scoring pass, Dobson improving.

Despite the magnitude of the task facing them, the Bulls were not dead and buried, putting together a 15-minute spell of serious pressure in their attempts to salvage something, anything, from the game.

But the fact they came away with just one try from that period was telling. Where Rovers were clinical in their execution, the Bulls were underconfident and unconvincing.

A last-gasp tackle denied Sibbit and Platt knocked on with the line at his mercy before Lynch finally earned some reward, spinning to touch down from Diskin’s pass.

Ah Van converted and a series of further chances went begging, Whitehead understandably fumbling a poor pass from Olbison after Lynch had made a good burst, while both Jeffries and Briggs were denied after promising runs.

As each opportunity slipped away, it became increasingly clear the Bulls were destined for defeat and that point was hammered home when Dobson and Ben Cockayne combined to send Welham past Platt for his hat-trick try. Dobson kicked the conversion to open a 22-point gap.

Bradford kept pushing right until the end, Whitehead breaking well off a pass from Jeffries to come within metres of a consolation. But their misery was only compounded when Fox touched down three minutes from time when Royston and Raynor failed to stop Webster from getting an offload away. Dobson kicked the final points of the game.