Given how we are still in the embryonic stages of the Qualifiers, it is hard to gauge the significance of each win in this seven-game season to determine the race for a place in Super League. But for a side who had won three league games out of 23 the manner in which Wakefield dispatched the Championship high-flyers Bradford has to be taken seriously.
This was regarded as one of the key games to determine just how close the Championship clubs could push their Super League counterparts and the Wildcats underlined their chances of remaining in the top tier.
Clues to Wakefield’s dominance begin in reading the list of try scorers for the home side; five of their eight tries came from forwards, emphasising how dominant the Wildcats were as they moved level on two points with Bradford. The win, though, was tempered by the news the winger Richard Owen has potentially suffered a double leg fracture following a tackle midway through the second half.
“We were extremely dominant early on, but a bit patchy after that,” said the Wakefield coach, Brian Smith. “The power of my forwards and their running was impressive and they laid the platform for us. They couldn’t cope with us for long periods, we were all over them like a rash.”
It took Wakefield six minutes to take the lead when a superb pass from the impressive Tim Smith put Jon Molloy over and after Molloy broke the line two minutes later the hooker, Michael Sio, was on hand to go over.
Bradford were struggling to cope with the speed and size of their opponents, and tries from Mickaël Simon and the ex-Bulls forward Nick Scruton, coupled with two more goals from Lee Smith, made it 24-0 after 15 minutes.
Lee Smith added a try of his own just before the half-hour mark, converting to take his tally to 14 points, but tries either side of half-time from Adrian Purtell and Dale Ferguson gave Bradford some brief hope.
That was as good as it got for them though, as Wakefield finished strongly with tries from Reece Lyne, Matty Ashurst and Jacob Miller, before the Bradford winger James Clare at least ensured their points difference remained in the positive with a try right on the hooter.
That was about the only positive for the Bulls on a dismal day for them, summed up by their coach, James Lowes, who said: “The positive from the first half is that we stood under the posts really well.”
Their misery was compounded with an injury to the influential half-back Lee Gaskell, leaving him doubtful for next Sunday’s visit of Salford.
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