Watch huge brawl which overshadows 1895 Cup clash as team finish with TEN players

Aaron Bower
Batley Bradford brawl

Dane Manning will miss Batley's next eight matches.

The road to Wembley is well underway for the Championship and League 1 clubs eyeing up a dream spot in this summer’s 1895 Cup final: and only eight teams are left standing.

Bradford Bulls are one of those teams, but they had to survive a major scare against West Yorkshire rivals Batley Bulldogs – as well as a swathe of heated incidents at the end of the game that saw multiple cards produced.

Two of those went to Batley forward Dane Manning and Bradford fullback Tom Holmes who were at the epicentre of an enormous all-in brawl that saw the pairing sent off after Manning threw a series of incredible punches, with some of them aimed in the direction of Holmes.

There were a staggering seven cards shown throughout the course of the afternoon – with Batley finishing the game with just TEN players after Manning’s red card plus two yellow cards for James Brown and Ollie Greensmith.

Despite that, Batley pushed Bradford all the way to the brink, with only a late try for Mitch Souter edging the Bulls through to the last eight and setting up a home tie against Sheffield Eagles.

It was the Manning-Holmes brawl which took centre stage though, and you can watch it below:

It left Bulls coach Brian Noble describing it post-match to journalists as a ‘throwback game’.

He said: “It was a sketchy performance from us but we had enough quality from us to show what we’re about. I’m experienced enough to know you can come here and do the same things and get nothing but we’ve got a result. In a polite way, I’d call it a throwback game from the 80s.”

Noble then hinted he would speak to the RFL about the incidents.

“Clearly I’ll go through the right channels.. we’ve been very disciplined this year and at one point the penalty count against us was 10-1 and it’s easier for the opposition. I’ve got to look at it but we’ll ring the right people at the rugby league and ask what we could have done better.”

Championship Batley Bulldogs

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