Bradford edge back to their best
Bradford Bulls 46 London Broncos 14
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Your support makes all the difference.Bradford bounced back impressively from their late-season blip at Valley Parade yesterday, with two tries from Leon Pryce setting them on their way to their first win in three games.
Pryce, preferred to Robbie Paul in the starting line-up, struck twice in a first half when the Bulls often struggled to contain London.
After taking control shortly before half-time, however, they looked much more their old selves as they ran away with the game.
The Broncos were the better side for the first half-hour, with the Bulls still showing all the hallmarks of the form slump that had affected them over the last couple of weeks as they suffered two heavy defeats.
London were in the lead through Richard Marshall's try, from Dennis Moran's deflected kick, and Mat Toshack's, after Jim Dymock had launched the ball to the corner and Nathan McAvoy had lost it.
Bradford were within two points, with Pryce scoring their only try and Paul Deacon's three goals outweighing the two from the former Bradford full-back, Paul Sykes.
The game began to change when Marshall was sent to the sin bin for holding down in a tackle – almost a standard procedure in recent Super League games. Far less common is a scrum won against feed, so the element of surprise when Bradford did so saw Pryce seize his chance again to stroll through an unprepared defence.
Deacon's 40-20 kick then produced a second crucial scrum, with Michael Withers this time getting over the tryline.
Sykes cut the margin early in the second half with his third goal and London still looked capable of getting back into the match. But then some lightning handling and Tevita Vaikona's angled run pinned the Broncos back on their line and James Lowes got over from dummy-half, as he has done so often in his Bradford career.
Tony Martin's speculative pass was then picked off by McAvoy to take the Bulls well clear and signal to the rest of Super League that their minor crisis was over.
The outstanding Withers underlined his side's resurgence with his second try as London became increasingly ragged, before McAvoy also claimed his second and Vaikona got in on the act with the last.
Bradford Bulls: Withers, Vaikona, Naylor, Costin, McAvoy, Pryce, Deacon, Vagana, Lowes, Fielden, Gartner, Peacock, Forshaw. Substitutes used: Paul, Anderson, Radford, Parker.
London Broncos: Sykes, Hall, Martin, Roy, Peters, Gillette, Moran, Stephenson, Hetherington, Marshall, Retchless, Toshack, Dymock. Substitutes used: Bawden, Dean, Houles, Barnett.
Referee: R Silverwood (Mirfield).
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