Bradford beat Huddersfield for first away win

Betfred Super League

Huddersfield (8) 14

Tries: Swift 2, Milne Goals: Russell

Bradford (14) 30

Tries: Sutton, Nikorima, Blake, Ryan Goals: Atkin 7

Bradford Bulls claimed their first away win of the Super League season with victory at bottom-of-the-table Huddersfield Giants.

Tries from Ryan Sutton and Jayden Nikorima helped the Bulls into a 14-8 half-time lead, with two tries from Adam Swift keeping Huddersfield in touch.

Chris Atkin added two penalty goals after the break to extend the Bulls' lead before Waqa Blake's try effectively sealed victory.

Taane Milne scored Huddersfield's third try but Bradford had the final say with a fifth score through Ethan Ryan.

Defeat extended Huddersfield's losing run to 11 matches and they stay six points adrift at the foot of the table.

Bradford were also in poor form, having lost four in a row, but picked up their sixth win of the campaign to move up three positions to 10th.

It took them eight minutes to score the game's first try as Huddersfield missed touch from a penalty and Caleb Aekins ran it back before Sutton went over from close range.

Swift quickly replied for the hosts as he dummied and scored in the left corner and his second try nine minutes later put the home side in front.

Bradford regained the lead as Nikorima took Joe Mellor's pass to score under the posts.

Atkin added the extra two and his penalty goal gave the visitors a 14-8 half-time lead.

Another penalty soon after the restart extended the lead and when Huddersfield spilled a high kick, Sam Hewitt was caught offside and Atkin added another two points.

Huddersfield compounded the error by not kicking the restart 10 metres and they were quickly back under pressure before Blake dummied to go past Jacob Gagai to score in the right corner.

Milne went over in the left corner for Huddersfield with six minutes remaining but it was scant consolation and there was still time for Bradford to score again through Ryan.

Huddersfield Giants coach Jim Lenihan told BBC Radio Leeds:

"In the first half, I'm sure Wrenchy's [Connor] try is a try, where he runs on an inside shoulder of a defender. It doesn't matter how hard he runs into the inside shoulder of a defender, it's a try. Everyone knows it other than the people refereeing the game today.

"Clearly, they are confused because the bloke hits the ground. He's allowed to hit the ground, as long as he leads on his inside shoulder, that's fair play. He doesn't have to be on him, and if he's stuck there, and he still gets knocked over on his inside shoulder, that's a try. Every day of the week.

"It's like an unconscious bias. We're not supposed to be scoring twice here. 'Huddersfield shouldn't be going well, oh no, it shouldn't be them. Pull it back'.

"So, we can't get our luck, and at the moment if we're doing anything half well it gets undone. If we're trying too hard, it undoes us. We should have come off that first half far more in front and at the moment it just feels like we're just copping a lot of tough calls."

Bradford head coach Kurt Haggerty told BBC Radio Leeds:

"I'm just really happy for the group, we've had a really tough week, a really difficult week. Probably the toughest I've had since I've been in the job because of how we performed against Leeds, at Magic.

"So, it's probably been our biggest challenge as a group. So, I'm really happy with how we've responded. I knew it wouldn't look pretty tonight. We just had to find a way to win and we found a way to win.

"I don't think we played great. I thought it was a lower-quality Super League game. But we scored 30 points and showed some incredible resilience, especially down to 12. So it's only a sign that we are getting better. We had a dip last week, but overall we've worked pretty hard most of the season."

Huddersfield: Evalds; Swift, Wrench, Gagai, Milne; Lolohea, Russell; Powell, Woolford, Rogers, Hewitt, Dunford, Rushton.

Interchanges: English, Greenwood, Cozza, Geyer.

Bradford: Aekins; Wynne, Armitage, Blake, Ryan; Nikorima, Atkin; Sutton, Ackers, Doro, Russell, Fulton, Mellor.

Interchanges: Ormondroyd, Dean, Scurr, Lewis.

Sin-bin: Fulton (40).

Referee: Matty Lynn.