Bradford v Fev: Teams and Scorers
Reserves Competition
Round 2
Bradford Bulls Reserves v Fev Reserves:
Wednesday March 20th
Travelling away to Bradford Bulls for a match at
Dudley Hill was always going to be tough for our young and comparatively
inexperienced side when they were facing a Bradford side that included 6
members of their first team squad, two with Super League experience, three who
have played at international level and an England Academy player.
We count as members
of first team squads any player who has been issued with a first team squad
number.
The game started brightly for Fev with Bradford
knocking on in the very first tackle of the game but, rather like a fortnight
ago Fev were up against it and conceded four tries in the opening 20 minutes to
go 18-0 down. That 20 minute period included a hatrick from Bradford centre
Elliot Culling. The biggest problem, which persisted for most of the match, was
a failure to organise properly against kicks.
And it wasn’t just kicks which demonstrated a lack
of defensive organisation. In the 20th minute Bradford half-back, Cobi Green,
was allowed to skip laterally along the defensive line until he found a huge
gap and passed to Elliot Culling who was coming up at speed and found the
perfect line to complete his hat-trick.
The Fev side must have felt hugely relieved to be
awarded a penalty after 24 minutes which should have enabled them to progress
up field but sadly the kick never found touch putting them under pressure yet
again. The error was compounded by Fev then giving away a penalty for holding
down in the next set.
Three minutes later Fev gave away a penalty on
their own line and that led to Jon Magrin powering over from just three yards
out.
Bradford’s 6th try in the 30th minute had an
element of luck about it. A chip through by Alix Stephenson was not gathered by
the defence. It bounced into the base of a post and he was able to simply fall
on the ball for the try.
In the last ten minutes of the first half Fev
played much better, helped by their kick off after the Stephenson try finding
touch. A good passing move, though, was ended when the Fev winger was tackled
into touch. just short of the line.
Shortly before half-time a slick handling move by
Fev looked like bringing a try but sadly the final pass was too far in front of
Nathan Wright and sailed into touch.
HT: Bradford 30 Fev 0
Bradford Second Row, Bradley Gallagher, who had
scored their 1st try added two more in the 53rd and 60th minute against a
Rovers defence that was looking much tougher than it had done earlier in the
match. That brought the score to 40-0.
In the 65th minute the referee appeared to award
Bradford a penalty near the Fev line and a fracas broke out. When it was all
sorted out he surprisingly kept his cards in his pocket and reversed the
decision awarding the penalty to Fev.
Bradford’s 9th and final try, in the 75th minute,
was quite obviously the result of a very tired defence. Sam Smith found a
huge gap and went in for the try completely unopposed.
With two minutes to go the Fev youngsters got the
reward they deserved when good handling down the right and some incisive
running saw Nathan Wright in and he was able to come a few yards off the touch
line before planting the ball down helping Morgan Punchard to kick the
conversion.
Paul March’s lads have a lot to learn but we are
confident they are capable of doing so and with more experience the wins will
come!
fevnut’s Man of the Match: Luke Walters
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