SWINTON LIONS 12 BRADFORD BULLS 38

IAN RIGG at Heywood Road, Sunday 5 May 2024

The Bulls warmed up for next week's big game against Wakefield with a seven try performance against the Lions. It started badly for the visitors when they knocked on in the first set but after that they constantly put pressure on the Lions defence. There were early chances for the Lions, but the Bulls defence was on top, and it was the visitors who took the lead when Jordan Lilley sent out a lovely short pass to Zac Fulton and he scored under the posts with Lilley adding the conversion. Six minutes later they were in again when Jorge Taufua made a break and Kieran Gill was on had to finish off the move to score and again Lilley made no mistake with the conversion, and this was quickly followed when Mitch Souter found a way to score by the posts after breaking two tackles and again the conversion was good. The Lions were not giving up and hit back on twenty-six minutes when Dec Patton floated a pass to the left and Rhys Williams was on hand to score in the corner with Patton converting. More Bulls pressure on the line just after the half hour but again good defence from the Lions holding them out on three occasions, but with three minutes to go to the break Souter found a nice pass for Kevin Appo to blast past a couple of defenders to score under the posts and Lilley again converted.

It took Bulls fours minutes to get on the board again in the second half when this time Souter created a gap for Dan Okoro to score by the posts and Lilley converted. Jayden Hatton made a good break for the Lions on fifty-two minutes, and it took a great tackle from Lilley to stop his progress, and two minutes he thought he had scored but there was an obstruction in the build up and it was cancelled out. Gav Rodden and Tom Holmes were sent to the sinbin on fifty-four minutes for fighting and the Bulls got the penalty and from the pressure Taufua created a second try for Gill who scored in the corner, but Lilley was unable to convert from the touchline. Fenton Rogers was held up on sixty-three minutes and they forced a goal line drop out from the next tackle, but nothing came of it. Another chance this time for Aidan McGowan but he lost control of the ball with the line open. Williams added his second with eleven minutes to go after a floated kick by Jordy Gibson and Patton converted off the touchline. The Lions were starting to put some pressure on the Bulls in the last ten minutes and got a penalty around halfway but as Patton went to kick to touch he seemed to say something to the official and he was sent to the sinbin and the penalty reversed and from this the Bulls put the penalty long downfield and more pressure on the Lions line with a man down Jayden Myers took advantage of a long pass to race in at the corner but Lilley could not convert. With seconds to go before the hooter Williams made a breakout of his own twenty but a good tackle by McGowan stopped him as the hooter sounded.

LIONS1 Dan Abram25 Richard Lepori29 Jonny Vaughan4 Jayden Hatton5 Rhys Williams6 Dec Patton7 Jordy Gibson13 Mikey Wood14 Josh Eaves34 Lucas Green33 Matty Foster21 Andy Badrock16 Lewis Hall

Subs (all used)20 Jack Houghton24 Jordan Case8 Liam Cooper11 Gav Rodden

Tries: Williams (26,69)Goals: Patton 2/2Sin-bin: Rodden (57) fighting; Patton (71) dissent

BULLS24 Aiden McGowan35 Jacob Douglas21 Jayden Myers4 Kieran Gill5 Jorge Tufua1 Tom Holmes7 Jordan Lilley34 Fenton Rogers18 Mitch Souter13 Michael Lawrence28 Harvey Wilson29 Zac Fulton17 Eribe Doro

Subs (all used)16 Kevan Appo10 Ebon Scurr23 Dan Okoro31 Tyran Ott

Tries: Fulton (14), Gill (20,59), Souter (23), Appo (37), Okoro (44), Myers (72)Goals: Lilley 5/7Sin-bin: Holmes (57) fighting

Penalties: 7-7Half-time: 6-24Referee: Liam RushAttendance: 1187