ON THE night that Leeds Rhinos celebrated collecting the league leaders’ prize by beating London Broncos 42-14 and maintaining their 100 per cent home record, the rampant Bradford Bulls guaranteed second place and a trip to “Fortress Headingley” in two weeks to determine the first of the grand finalists.
Sean Long’s admirable, if ultimately futile, efforts on his comeback were overshadowed by Lesley Vainikolo pipping Danny McGuire, of Leeds, to the top tryscorer award — a fifth hat-trick took the New Zealand wing’s league total to 36 — as Bradford trounced a weakened St Helens for a second time at Odsal. It leaves the Challenge Cup holders having to win away to Wigan Warriors next Saturday to make any progress towards a fourth Old Trafford appearance in six years.
With Hull unable to climb any higher than third, last night’s result is encouraging for Widnes Vikings as they seek the victory at the KC Stadium tonight that would see them stay up and Castleford Tigers relegated.
Jeered at every turn after his three-month ban for betting against St Helens on their ill-fated previous visit, Long had to endure an even worse hiding than the 54-8 result on Easter Monday. Without seven regulars, they were on a hiding to nothing and were duly swamped as Stuart Reardon matched Vainikolo’s hat-trick in an 11-try drubbing.
In difficult circumstances, Long played for the most part like he had never been away. All his trickery, though, could not halt the Bradford steamroller. They had an anxious period when Long’s clever running insitigated a try by John Stankevitch and the scrum half landed a couple of penalties, but Bradford were 28-10 up by half-time, having opened their account when Vainikolo’s thundering feet paved the way for Shontayne Hape’s deft hands to score two tries in four minutes. Bradford relieved the pressure with their first penalty after 30 minutes, which Stuart Reardon converted into a try in supporting a break by Leon Pryce.
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Hape was about to touch down his third try when he generously supplied Vainikolo with his 34th league try — and Jamie Peacock ploughed over as Bradford began to overwhelm Saints.
Long produced a try for Mike Bennett with a wonderful grubber kick, but that and further scores by Dom Feaunati and Ade Gardner were brief gestures as Vainikolo rumbled over twice in seven minutes, Reardon had a couple more free rides down the right touchline and Mick Withers notched the half-century.
SCORERS: Bradford Bulls: Tries: Hape 2, Reardon 3, Vainikolo 3, Peacock, Withers, Deacon. Goals: Deacon 10. St Helens: Tries: Stankevitch, Bennett, Feaunati, Gardner. Goals: Long 4.
BRADFORD BULLS: M Withers; S Reardon, L Pryce, S Hape, L Vainikolo; I Harris, P Deacon; J Vagana, R Paul, S Fielden, L Swann, J Peacock, L Radford. Substitutes: P Johnson, K Pratt, R Moore, R Parker.
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ST HELENS: P Wellens; A Gardner, W Talau, G Viane, I Hardman; J Roby, S Long; K Mason, M Higham, M Fa’asavalu, C Joynt, J Stankevitch, J Wilkin. Substitutes: M Bennett, J Graham, D Feaunati, A Bracek.
Referee: A Klein.
Grand Final countdown: Sept 24, Hull (3rd) v Wakefield Trinity Wildcats (6th) (loser eliminated); 25, Wigan Warriors (4th) v St Helens (5th) (loser eliminated); Oct 1, Leeds (1st) v Bradford (2nd) (winner to final); 2, Hull/Wakefield v Wigan/St Helens (loser eliminated); 8, Leeds/Bradford v Hull/Wakefield/Wigan/St Helens (winner to final); 16, final (Old Trafford).