Bradford Bulls leave it late to claim victory at Doncaster

And with Toulouse and Sheffield both losing on the road this weekend, Bradford are up to third in the Betfred Championship, just a point off second place.

But in a congested table, seventh-placed York are only four points behind them, so Bradford still likely need two or three wins from their last five games just to earn a play-off spot.

This was an odd encounter at the Eco-Power Stadium, and Bradford were offering virtually nothing in attack until late on, with Luke Briscoe’s first-half try looking like being the only score of the game for either side.

But Bulls defended well to keep themselves in the game, before a well-worked converted score for Jordan Lilley put Bradford ahead on 65 minutes.

The visitors then put the gloss on the scoreline through Keven Appo and Tom Holmes.

Tom Holmes celebrates with his skipper Michael Lawrence after scoring Bulls' decisive third try. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

Doncaster started the brighter of the two sides, with Reece Lyne dropping the ball with men over on the right 20 yards out, then Joe Lovodua twice shedding possession in the tackle close in.

Lilley was then smashed to the ground 20 yards out, but that was deemed not to be a shoulder charge despite vociferous complaints from the away end.

To Bulls' credit, they did not complain, and Jarrod Sammut's lovely kick to the corner was caught and touched down by Jayden Okunbor, only for the try to be chalked off for offside.

Instead, Doncaster deservedly went ahead, as Briscoe did superbly to knock a flat kick across to Pauli Pauli on the right.

The big man shrugged off a desperate tackle, then flung the ball back wide to Briscoe, who dived over in the corner.

With Bulls unable to get going, they almost conceded a second try, but were fortunate that Jorge Taufua just won Connor Robinson's cross-field kick ahead of Briscoe.

The Doncaster winger nearly scored soon after too, only for desperate defending to bring him down a metre short.

Other than a couple of skilful and powerful breaks down the middle from Eribe Doro, Bulls were struggling to create anything in attack.

But as the half drew to a close, they started to offer more threat.

Mitch Souter was held up just short but illegally, so the referee awarded a six again.

Mitch Souter did not have his usual inspiration in attack, but almost helped pull Bradford level late in the first half. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

From that, Zac Fulton burst through for what looked a certain score, only to seemingly over-complicate things, and as he spun to try and touch the ball down, Doncaster somehow batted the chance away to take a narrow lead into the changing rooms.

And Bradford nearly went further behind just after the break, but Harvey Makin and John Davies somehow held up Loui McConnell over the line after a brilliant offload from the swarmed Josh Guzdek.

Doro and Fulton then combined to prevent a try on the line, but Bulls' task was complicated when Tyran Ott was sin-binned, seemingly for persistent offending in the tackle, a decision that left both him and the coaching staff bemused.

Bulls defended well a man light, but their attacks kept breaking down, to the point where head coach Eamon O’Carroll raced down to the touchline to give poor Holmes, who happened to be closest to him, a rocket.

Okunbor then had to be on hand to save his side, flattening a charging Watson Boas with a crunching tackle when the hosts had men over.

But a 70-yard Taufua break flicked a switch in Bulls with just over 15 minutes to go.

They were unlucky when Sammut’s kick to the corner was knocked back by Okunbor, only for it to bounce unkindly for Fulton as he went to touch down.

Jarrod Sammut's kicks on the last tackle were not quite succeeding, but his persistence did eventually pay off. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

And with Ott now back on, the 13 men of Bulls finally started to overpower their hosts.

Doro made a decisive break through the middle, and the supporting Lilley took the pass in on his left and raced over the line to score.

He converted his own try to put Bulls 6-4 ahead, and from there, Bradford never looked back.

Just three minutes later, Sammut's kick through deflected off a Doncaster boot and fell perfectly for Appo, who scooped up and went over the line to score.

Lilley defied the wind to convert again, before Holmes put the visitors out of sight.

He picked the ball up at the base of the ruck a yard out, then stretched out to score next to the posts, leaving Lilley with a simple conversion to round off the scoring.

DONCASTER: Guzdek, Briscoe, Lyne, Hey, Faraimo, Boas, Robinson, Knowles, Lovodua, Matagi, Pauli, Sutcliffe, McConnell. Interchanges: Hall, Mafi, Ferres, Baxter. 18th man: Holdstock.

BULLS: Holmes, Okunbor, Myers, Lehmann, Taufua, Sammut, Lilley, Bayliss, Souter, Lawrence, Appo, Fulton, Doro. Interchanges: Davies, Ott, Pele, Makin. 18th man: Franco.

BULLS MAN OF THE MATCH: Eribe Doro.