Bradford coach questions sin-bin timing as grim Waqa Blake prognosis delivered

Bradford Bulls coach Kurt Haggerty admits he is seeking further information on whether or not Joe Shorrocks returned to the field before he had served his full ten-minute sin-bin on Saturday.

The St Helens forward was shown a yellow card for a tackle on Bradford’s Ed Chamberlain during the Saints’ dramatic win over the Bulls at the BrewDog Stadium.

However, the timing clock appeared to show that Shorrocks returned under nine minutes into that time off the field – though there were stoppages during that period which could have caused a human error or a legitimate reason for the specific timing of his re-entry to the field.

Haggerty admitted he did not want to be dragged into too much controversy on the matter, but said he was questioning the incident during the game and will now ask for more detail about the timings surrounding Shorrocks’ yellow card.

He said: “I don’t know the ins and outs but it seemed as though.. and I’ll find out.. did Joe Shorrocks come back on the field early?

“I sent a message down to our assistant coach Carl Forster to speak to the fourth official but I’ve not had that clarity so I’d like to exhaust that a little bit more. I might be wrong and I’m okay with that, I’d just like the clarity with it. But we ran out of steam.”

Bradford are doing it tough with injuries but still pushed one of the title favourites desperately close, leading in the late stages until Deon Cross’ late try secured victory for the Saints.

And their injury crisis appeared to deepen further after Waqa Blake did not return after half-time. Haggerty appeared downbeat in admitting a possible shoulder injury to Blake ‘did not look good’.

He said: “I am worried right now because we’re already short on bodies. It doesn’t look good, I think it’s his shoulder.”

The game’s other big disciplinary moment was when young Bulls forward Elliot Peposhi was sent off after making contact with the head of George Delaney. But Haggerty refused to be too critical on the player post-match.

“He’s still a baby,” he said. He’ll learn in these moments. He’s played three or four first team games in the Championship and he’s now played three or four Super League games in a short space of time. He’ll learn from it really quickly and we certainly won’t beat him up. It was a big moment and Elliot will learn from it but he’s got my support.”