2007 Bradford Bulls Season - September

September

In September, to celebrate their Centenary Season, T & A Bradford's local paper are commissioning a team of the century (see below for details). Bradford Bulls will play Leeds Rhinos in an all star match of touch rugby, Deryk Fox, Karl Fairbank, James Lowes etc. will turn out for the Bulls while the likes of Gary Schofield, Lee Crookes and Dave Heron etc. will turn out for the Rhinos, the game was be played before Round 25 game between Bradford Bulls and Leeds Rhinos, A last-gasp James Evans try rescued Bradfords centenary celebrations giving them a 16 all draw as Leeds threatened to ruin their party. Bradford Signed Paul Sykes from Harlequins and Other poised to move to Odsal include Wakefield duo Ben Jeffries and Semi Tadulala, along with Huddersfield centre or second row Chris Nero and Hull hooker Wayne Godwin, while the Bulls are also being linked with Salford loose forward Simon Finnigan. Bradford Announced that players Nathan McAvoy, Marcus St Hilaire and Chris McKenna would not be retained for 2008. Other players leaving at the end of the year are Ian Henderson, Ben Harris, they are both going to play in the NRL in Australia for New Zealand Warriors and North Queensland Cowboys respectively. The last home match of the weekly rounds in 2007 was against Catalans Dragons, the Bulls will be hoping to gain revenge for the defeat in March. Stacey Jones played his last game on British soil before retirement. Bradford ran in five second-half tries to ease past a lacklustre Catalans side and boost their slim hopes of securing second spot in the Super League table. Adel Fellous had handed the Dragons the early lead but tries from Terry Newton and Glenn Morrison turned it around. Iestyn Harris went on to score 16 points, with further tries from Newton, Joe Vagana, David Solomona, Dave Halley and Nathan McAvoy sealing an easy win. McAvoy's score was of particular relief to the winger, who will be released by the Bulls at the end of the campaign, as he avoided a naked run around Odsal's pitch - the traditional punishment for any Bradford player who fails to touch down during an entire season. The average attendance for home matches was 12,084. The last game of the regular Super League Season was against Hull F.C.,In a game where Shontayne Hape made his comeback after 6 months out. Bradfords Tries Came from Tame Tupou and David Solomona but Bradford were defeated 20-10 even though they dominated for large periods. McNamara said: "We played well but just didn't put many points on the board. "It was a very tough game for round 27 of the competition. There was a bit to play for both sides and it proved a really testing match. "We were physical and defensively we were very strong. There was lots of positive signs out there. "I'm disappointed we didn't get the win but I'm not disappointed with some of the stuff we produced. "Obviously, some things do need improving. We just weren't quite good enough to finish Hull off and fair play to them. "They defended superbly, were very tough and tenacious and managed to scrap some points from our errors and hacking on some kicks." Bradford finished third for a third successive year and will now face either Huddersfield or Brian Noble's Wigan in a play-off eliminator at Grattan Stadium Bradford finished 3rd in the final super league 12 standings, and will play Wigan Warriors in the first week of play offs. The game will see the Bulls play against the team coached by former coach Brian Noble in which the Bulls lost, Bulls were 30-6 up but Wigan fought back to win 31-30.They will be talking about that result for years to come; it's worse than the "wide to west" debacle.