Bradford Bulls came close to pulling off another upset win in Super League, but it wasn’t to be as St Helens edged out a 26-22 victory.
The Bulls led at half-time thanks to tries from Connor Wynne and Ethan Ryan, but a chaotic second half that saw Eliot Peposhi sent off meant that Saints just had enough to see out a victory.
Peposhi took George Delaney high, and the tackle was deemed illegal and had no mitigating factors, meaning he was sent for an early shower by video referee Tom Grant.
Kyle Feldt capitalised, scoring just after to give Saints the lead. Joe Shorrocks was sin binned for a dangerous tackle, and the Bulls managed to nudge ahead, but a final try from Deon Cross sent Bradford travelling back home empty-handed.
Boss Kurt Haggerty couldn’t help but feel like his side should have come away with something from that contest as a testament to the effort and commitment shown across the 80 minutes.
Speaking to Sky Sports post-match, Haggerty said:Â “We don’t want to be valiant losers, but we’re extremely proud of what we did in our second half.
Going down to 12 and losing Waqa [Blake] at half-time, they were big moments for us.
“I think the way we kept turning St Helens away defensively…I’m very proud of the D [defence] and still having the ability to play offensively when we’re numbers down.”
Assessing his side’s start to the Super League campaign, he explained: “It’s hard, because when I have a quiet moment to myself and we’re happy that we’ve won the two games, but then when you start breaking it down and look at this game, the whole game, we’re really disappointed we’ve not won that game.
“I’ll say it again, we don’t want to be valiant losers.
“The more the season goes, the more of these games that we’re [competing] in, I’d like to think we’ll come away with the wins.”
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