Monday 4th June 2012, at Odsal Stadium, BradfordStobart Super League, Round 16
Admission £20 (£16 advance), Programme £3, Attendance 10,690
Bradford Bulls (34) 46
Trys: Keith Lulia, Brett Kearney 2, John Bateman, Olivier Elima, Shaun Ainscough 3,
Goals: Luke Gale 7 (from 8 kicks)
Castleford Tigers (16) 32
Trys: Jordan Thompson, Rangi Chase 2, Nathan Massey, Rhys Williams 2,
Goals: Kirk Dixon 4 (from 6 kicks)
Bradford BullsKearney, Ainscough, Platt, Lulia, Pryce, Jeffries, Gale, Manuokafoa, Hargreaves, L'Estrange, Bateman, Olbison, Elima
Subs - Addy, Burgess, Sibbit, Whitehead
Castleford Tigers
Youngquest, Williams, Dixon, Thompson, Griffin, Chase, Orr, Jackson, Jones, Huby, Ferres, Holmes, Mitchell
Subs - Walker, McGoldrick, Millington, Massey
Hmm, the 46-32 final scoreline, suggests that this must've been a really exciting game ... and well, in fairness, at times, it obviously was.But, when two teams are both guilty of having such lightweight rearguards, then the opportunity to rack up tries, is always going to be exploited.
The coaches and supporters of both teams, must be having nightmares about the way their sloppy defences both stood off and all too often, offered about as much resistance as a chocolate fire-guard in front of a roaring log fire.
I think one Cas fan summed it up perfectly, when he said of Lee Mitchell "You wouldn't stop a snooker player with that technique".
Though, it wouldn't be right to single out any one player for that kind of criticism, because Mitchell wasn't the only culprit to that end tonight, by any stretch of the imagination..
The Tigers, were trailing 34-10 at one point, but clawed their way back (pun-tastic, eh!?), to within 8 points of their hosts, with a back to the walls second half performance.
Alas, the Bulls got their second wind and killed off Castleford's growing hopes of a late comeback, inside the final five minutes.
Karl Pryce and Manese Manuokofoa were both towers of strength in the Bradford side's approach play. And while the maverick Shaun Ainscough was running tries in for fun, Luke Gale scored with 7 out of 8 of his kicks, to edge the score out of the visitors reach.
For Castleford, Ranji Chase put in a man of the match shift, that he crowned with two tries, Nick Youngquest bust a gut running with the ball at every given opportunity and Oliver Holmes probably got more tackles in on his own, than both teams combined defences managed to successfully complete all night.
Rhys Williams too, had a good game for the Tigers, his second try was a great opportunist score as he capitalised on Shaun Ainscough's 'unconventional' (and unsuccessful) attempt to catch a forward punt from Ranji Chase.
If a high scoring game, with a whole load of try scoring is what you were after, then the sprawling banks of terracing at Odsal Stadium were the place to be tonight.
If hard hitting, head on tackling is more to your taste ... hmm, some other night, eh!?
