Bradford 40-20 Hull KR

Hull KR‘s wretched mid-season form continued on Sunday, as they slumped to a 40-20 defeat to Bradford at the Grattan Stadium.nnRovers led 16-6 midway through the first half, but two quick tries just before the break, and a commanding second half display sealed the two points for the Odsal side.nnThe defeat is the Robins’ fourth on the bounce now, as their play-off dream begins to fizzle away rapidly, while Bradford closed the gap on fourth-placed Wigan to just a point.nnBradford opened the scoring six minutes in, with prop David Solomona crashing over following good work from centre Shontayne Hape (pictured), playing his final match for Bradford before departing to Bath to start his rugby union career. Iestyn Harris added the extras to open up an early 6-0 lead.nnWithin 15 minutes, though, Rovers had turned the game on its head, racing into a 10-6 lead. They cut the gap to just two points after 15 minutes, wingman Peter Fox going over in the corner. Stand-off Paul Cooke missed the conversion, but stunned the home crowd five minutes later with a smash-and-grab try, before converting his own try to make it 10-6.nnAnd Bradford found themselves even further behind on 26 minutes. Neat passing by Jake Webster and Daniel Fitzhenry put recent signing Michael Dobson in under the posts, giving Cooke an easy conversion to open up a 16-6 lead.nnWith seven minutes of the half to play, Bradford cut the deficit to four points. Rovers made a mess of a scrum down, and it was centre Paul Sykes who took full advantage, pouncing on the loose ball and touching down. Harris added the two points to make it 16-12.nnAnd Bradford edged their noses in front with four minutes of the half to play, Hape grabbing a classic centre’s try in his farewell appearance for the club. Harris’ conversion gave the home side an 18-16 interval lead.nnBradford extended their advantage ten minutes after the restart. Australian stand-off Ben Jeffries stepped cleverly out of a tackle, and found second rower Simon Finnigan inside him who crossed near the sticks to give Harris a simple conversion to make it 24-16.nnFour minutes later, Sykes scored his second try of the game to pull the home side further ahead. Harris failed to add the extras, so Bradford remained two converted tries ahead of Rovers.nnWelsh stand-off Harris scored his first try of the season to add to his growing points tally for the game. Harris converted his own try, before converting a try from full-back Michael Platt to take Bradford onto the 40-point mark.nnFull-back Ben Cockayne grabbed a late consolation try for the visitors, with Rovers’ only try of the second half.nnWith just eight games left of the regular season, the Craven Park side need a serious pick-up in form if they are to make the top six and have any realistic play-off hopes.nnBradford – 40nnT: Solomona (6); Sykes (32, 56); Hape (35); Finnigan (51); Harris (63); Lynch (65)nG: Harris (7, 33, 36, 52, 64, 66)nnHull KR – 20nnT: Fox (15); Cooke (19); Dobson (26); Cockayne (79)nG: Cooke (20, 27)nnHT: 18-16nnRef: B ThalernnAtt: 9,741