Vainikolo makes Warrington pay for indiscipline

Bradford ran away with this Powergen Challenge Cup fourth-round tie in the second half as the strain of trying to contain them with 12 men proved too much for Warrington.

The Wolves played for more than 20 minutes with a man in the sin-bin and saw all their earlier efforts go to waste as the Bulls scored four tries during that time, two of them from Lesley Vainikolo.

Bradford have not found it easy to impose themselves at Wilderspool in recent seasons and they struggled again in the early stages. After a minute's silence for Peter Deakin, who left such a mark on both clubs, Lee Briers and Paul Deakin both landed a couple of kicks. The difference in the first quarter was Darren Burnes' try for Warrington, when he went through tackles from Daniel Gartner and Leon Pryce to touch down.

Warrington were more than matching the Bulls for aggression, as you have to do to have any chance against them, and they got the due reward for the momentum they were gathering when Briers kicked them further ahead from an offside penalty. Jon Clarke's running from dummy-half was causing Bradford problems, and Graham Appo might have scored from one such break. Instead, the Bulls conceded another penalty for offside and Briers built on Warrington's advantage.

There were too many penalties generally for the game to develop any fluency and, from one of them, the Bradford captain, Robbie Paul, took a pass from James Lowes and managed to twist and stretch his way over the line, Deakin's kick reducing the deficit to a mere two points.

Immediately before the break, Deakin wiped even that out when Appo was sent to the sin-bin for flopping late into the tackle.

Bradford hope their new signing from New Zealand, Shontayne Hape, will be the key to unlocking the full destructive potential of his fellow countryman Vainikolo, and there were signs of that at the start of the second half when Hape dropped the ball out, basketball style, for his winger to power over.

When Sid Domic was sent to the sin-bin for throwing the ball away after being penalised for stealing it in the tackle, the odds were stacked against Warrington again. The task was officially defined as impossible when Pryce went through three weary attempts to tackle him and ran 60 yards for a spectacular try.

Vainikolo then took Lee Radford's pass to barge over for his second and it was all over for Warrington.

Scott Naylor's extravagant dummy brought him the fifth Bradford try and, with Briuers in the sin-bin, Hape got a well-deserved one before the end, with Deacon bringing his total of goals to seven.

There was a late try, too, at Bellevue, where Waisale Sovatabua gave Wakefield a 20-18 victory over Castleford.

Warrington: Penny; Smyth, Sibbit, Westwood, Grose; Briers, N Wood; Fozzard, Clarke, Hilton, Burns, Wainwright, Domic. Substitutes used: Gleeson, Appo, P Wood, Stevens.

Bradford: Pryce; Pratt, Naylor, Hape, Vainikolo; Paul, Deacon; Vagana, Lowes, Fielden, Gartner, Peacock, Forshaw. Substitutes used: Gilmour, Radford, Parker, Anderson.

Referee: R Connolly (Wigan).