Bulls Ease Past Reds

The Reds struggled throughout the game, never clicking into gear, and always looked nervous in their first ever play-off outing.

Bradford took full advantage racing into a 18-0 lead after just 17 minutes with tries from Michael Withers, Brett Ferres and Shontayne Hape, who went on to score three more tries.

Hape’s second try gave the home side a 22-0 lead at the half time interval, and there was no let up in the second half  after the Kiwi centre added his third to extend the advantage to 28-0.

 Salford were given a glimmer of hope with a touch down from David Hodgson, but Andy Lynch and Sam Burgess got in on the act to turn a big win into a rout.

And, appropriately, it was Hape who sealed the game with his final score five minutes from time, to set up a home tie with Warrington Wolves next week.

Bulls coach Steve McNamara said that a good start to the game had been instrumental for Bradford, going on to express his side’s desire to reach the Grand Final once again

"I've got to be pleased. It was important that we started well and from the first kick-off we were on the front foot. We started the game strong and we were pretty fluent throughout" said McNamara.

"There is a desire and a passion to get to the Grand Final again. We are the champions and we're a pretty proud bunch but we are a long way off and this is just one hurdle.

"We lost a lot of players with mountains of Grand Final experience and it's credit to the experienced players still here and the culture of the club that we seem to find our best form."  

Reds boss Karl Harrison said he couldn’t blame his players for the defeat after their achievements throughput the season, but admitted that the Reds’ confidence had been kicked out of them early on the encounter.

"We came here with lots of confidence but that was kicked out of us very early in the game” said Harrison.

"Andrew Dunemann has been instrumental this season for us and his loss disrupted us a great deal.

"I can't be too critical of the players They've given it everything they've got this season. Even tonight, when we were getting beat by a far superior team, they tried really really hard and never gave in."