Championship: Sheffield stun Bradford, Widnes hit 70 and Barrow roll on

James Gordon 07 Feb 2022 10:19 AM

Sheffield caused the upset of the weekend in the Championship as they turned over Bradford 28-14 at Odsal, while Barrow, Batley and Widnes made it two from two.

The bookies had the Bulls as heavy favourites at -28 on the handicap, but Mark Aston’s side defied those odds to register their first win of the season.

A tight first half saw Kieran Gill and Liam Johnson exchanged converted scores, and Bradford went 12-6 up shortly before the hour mark through Rhys Evans.

Sheffield hit back through Vila Halafihi against his former club, only for Dec Patton’s penalty to nudge the Bulls 14-12 up.

But Sheffield turned the game on its head in the final 15 minutes, with tries from Ross Oakes and Anthony Thackeray, plus three Izaac Farrell goals secured the win.

🤫 Shushes the Bulls fans.
👈 Points to the scoreboard.

😄 Never change, @Joelfarrell4!

🦅 #TheEaglesAreComing pic.twitter.com/AAJ0N9TzFn

— Sheffield Eagles (@SheffieldEagles) February 6, 2022

Three make it two from two

Widnes made it two wins from two with a 70-18 thumping of Workington.

Adam Lawton came off the bench at half-time and scored a hat-trick, despite spending 10 minutes in the sinbin, while Joe Edge converted 11 from 12.

Brad Holroyd scored with his very first touch in Widnes colours against his former club, and there were also tries on home debut for Olly Davies, Matty Fozard, Matt Fleming and Tyler Dupree.

👀 Waking up top of the league.#COYV🏁 pic.twitter.com/zczsBeru1W

— Widnes Vikings (@WidnesRL) February 7, 2022

Danny Craven and Sam Wilde also scored two apiece.

Newly-promoted Barrow secured their second win of the season in awful conditions at Whitehaven.

Ryan Shaw scored 10 points as they won 18-4, with Hakim Miloudi and Dan Toal also on the scoresheet.

These were some of the conditions that @OfficialHavenRl and @BarrowRaiders battled during today’s Cumbrian derby in which the Raiders came out on top 18-4.

Read my match reports in @leagueexpress and @newsstarsport #rugbyleague pic.twitter.com/UdKbnvG0OK

— Jordan Weir 🎙📻 (@jordan_weir14) February 6, 2022

Batley also made it two wins from two as they won 32-14 at Newcastle.

Johnny Campbell scored a hat-trick for Craig Lingard’s men, who led 12-4 at the break.

York bounced back from their Monday night defeat to Featherstone with a 30-2 win at home to Dewsbury.

The City Knights had to stay patient to grind out the win, and only led 6-2 at half time.

Tries from Jamie Ellis and Sam Davis either side of the hour mark finally broke Dewsbury’s resolve, and Brendan O’Hagan and Chris Clarkson added gloss late on.

London suffered their second successive defeat to start the season as Halifax coasted past them 28-0 at The Shay.

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