Championship club’s bus ‘attacked’ on their way home after defeat

Sadly, after a brilliant opening weekend to the Championship, it has been overshadowed by Whitehaven’s bus getting attacked on their way home from Odsal.

In a statement on Twitter, the club confirmed that an object was thrown at the bus from a motorway bridge smashing the roof.

They said:

“On the way home from Bradford this evening the team bus seems to have subjected to an attack with an object being thrown from a motorway bridge and smashing through the roof emergency exit.

“The bus pulled over shortly after and reported the incident to the authorities and are now back on there way. All on the bus are unhurt following the incident.”

Everyone at Serious About Rugby League is glad that no one is hurt.

It is also important to say that there appears to be no evidence that rival rugby league fans were responsible.

Haven had just lost 24-8 to Bradford Bulls.

A tight first half saw defences on top, Chester Butler with the sole try of the opening forty after a neat ball from Jordan Lilley.

Two tries in two minutes from Kieran Gill extended Bradford’s advantage before a brief Whitehaven response through Josh Rourke.

George Flanagan Snr provided the icing on the cake with a trademark barrelling effort to seal the spoils.

Head coach Mark Dunning named seven debutants in his matchday line up – six of those starting the match.

The visitors would be the first to trouble the scoreboard on the back of a penalty, but the home side continued pressing as the half wore on.

Tom Holmes saw a try disallowed but it didn’t take the Bulls too long to get their first points of 2023.

Butler was fed a short ball from Lilley and his rampaging run could not be halted, Bradford taking the lead.

The Bulls then saw a second score chalked off as the half approached its climax, and the second half continued in the same vein with defences on top.

The game then exploded into life when Butler turned provider on this occasion, breaking the Haven defence before finding Gill on his left shoulder who raced home.

Seconds after the restart, the centre was in again – Dec Patton with a lovely inside ball to man of the match Holmes, who raced away and fed his fellow Cas Bus partner for a second in as many minutes.

The visitors did respond when a kick ricocheted towards Josh Rourke in the right corner.

But it would be the home side to have the final say, on the back of a quick ruck, Flanagan Snr did what Flanagan Snr so often does and battled his way over.