17 May 2024

Bradford Bulls Reserves 0 Leeds Rhinos Reserves 40

Bu Guy Harvey

Tony Smith’s reserve side made the short journey to local rivals Bradford Bulls on an evening where Leo Aliyu and Josh Gillespie both grabbed a pair of tries each to cap off a tough game with impressive displays from Alfie Johnson, Ben Littlewood and Tayler Stephenson also worth the mention, but a game that the score board was maybe a little harsh on the home sides performance.

The game started in a ferocious fashion with both sides showing grit and determination in defence with Leeds the first side to crack under the pressure, fumbling possession in their own twenty after another huge tackle. However, their defence was impeccable dealing with the pressure from the Bulls, also to give credit to both sides the error count stayed to a minimum considering, but it was Leeds finally breaking the deadlock on the sixteen-minute mark with the McCormack brothers combing well, with Fergus taking the ball at the line before finding brother Ned out back but with work still to do he charged over to score the try taking the Bradford defence with him.

Leeds extended their lead just shy of the half hour mark, forward Leo Aliyu scoring his first try of the evening after the Rhinos had put the home side on the back foot on the rare occasion and they made it count when replacement hooker Shane Tuohey saw a gap to go himself from the play the ball only for the Bradford defence to shut up shop, only for Tuohey to get the ball free and find a waiting Aliyu who happily dived over the try line for the four pointer and with the conversion it made it 10-0 to the Rhinos.

Leeds began to turn the screw and scored back-to-back tries, after Tuohey again going himself made the break on halfway, finding centre Harry Taylor in support to beat the Bradford full back and race away to score the try, with a successful conversion made it 16-0 but with minutes in the half Leeds hadn’t finished just yet. Following a knock on from Bradford in their own half, Leeds chose to take the scrum in the centre of the field and utilised a move straight from the training ground – again the McCormack combined well with a move to fool the Bradford defence and create an overlap to give winger Josh Gillespie his first try of the night going over in the corner to give the Rhinos a 22-0 half time lead.

Bradford came out in the second half full of confidence after a talk from coach Glenn Morrison, Leeds had to work hard to put more points on the board but even harder to keep Bradford scoreless which was testament to both teams. Leeds increased their lead ten minutes in to the second half when forward Freddie Brennan-Jones charged over from close range taking a few Bradford defenders with him. Aliyu grabbed his second of the game minutes later when he ran in support of fellow forward Freddie Brennan-Jones to receive the offload just metres from the try line, crashing over to score the try and with the conversion from Tuohey made it 34-0 to the Rhinos.

The home side still refused to lower their effort levels and persisted to make it a tough game for the visitors, however the Rhinos didn’t want to give up their clean sheet on the evening. But with time ticking away the Rhinos would put the final nail in the home sides coffin, this time winger Josh Gillespie double his try tally for the evening diving over in the corner in very similar fashion to his first try after a bullet of a pass from Mason Corbett missing out two Rhinos to put Gillespie over in the corner, Tuohey again converting making the final score 40-0.

Bradford Bulls Reserves