Bradford consolidated their position on top of Super League with a commanding display in front of a capacity 18,200 crowd at Headingley last night. Leeds had humbled the champions, St Helens, there in their last match, but with Henry Paul controlling play Leeds never looked like taking a second major scalp in a week. Bradford consolidated their position on top of Super League with a commanding display in front of a capacity 18,200 crowd at Headingley last night. Leeds had humbled the champions, St Helens, there in their last match, but with Henry Paul controlling play Leeds never looked like taking a second major scalp in a week.
With Ryan Sheridan injured and Karl Pratt failing in his appeal against a two-match suspension yesterday morning, Leeds opted to switch their hooker, Robbie Mears, to scrum-half. Leeds applied early pressure, but Henry Paul gave Bradford the lead from a penalty after a break by his brother Robbie. That was merely the appetiser for a spectacular opening try, Henry Paul handling twice in a dazzling attack that ended with Jamie Peacock sending Michael Withers over.Withers then stressed his all-round value by saving a try, causing Keith Senior to lose the ball over the line after he had been sent through by Harris.The versatile Australian back made it a hat-trick of significant interventions four minutes later, going over for his second try, again from Henry Paul’s pass, as Bradford threatened to put the game beyond Leeds in the first quarter.Eight minutes before the break, things improved for Leeds, slightly and briefly, when Bradford were penalised for ripping the ball from Anthony Farrell’s grasp and Stuart Fielden was sent to the sin bin as the referee, Stuart Cummings, finally had enough of the repeated back chat.

Harris kicked the goal to make modest inroads into the Bulls’ lead.Even then, Henry Paul’s touch-finder from the kick-off put Bradford back on the attack and, with Leeds again found wanting by the pace and the power of their rugby, Withers’ final pass created a try for Mike Forshaw, with Henry Paul adding his fourth goal.A typically elusive piece of running from Harris set up Carroll to drive over the try line as Leeds tried to repair the damage after the interval. Then Senior was stopped on the line and a crucial pass did not go to hand after Harris threatened with another penetrative run. That was Leeds’ last hope, Paul Anderson smashing his way over from Lee Gilmour’s pass.Rob Burrow sprinted over to keep the margin respectable but Henry Paul’s drop goal underlined his personal mastery before Tevita Vaikona squeezed in at the corner. Henry Paul fittingly rounded things off with an injury-time penalty.Leeds Rhinos: Cummins; Walker, Carroll, Senior, St Hilaire; Harris, Mears; Fleary, Diskin, Mathiou, Farrell, Hay, Sinfield. Substitutes used: Calderwood, Burrow, Wrench, Barrie McDermott.Bradford Bulls: Withers; Vaikona, Mackay, Gilmour, Pryce; H Paul, R Paul; Vagana, Lowes, Brian McDermott, Peacock, Gartner, Forshaw. Substitutes used: Deacon, Anderson, Fielden, Radford.Referee: S Cummings (Widnes).. Think back five years, to the end of the 1995-96 domestic season: Jack Rowell was making too much money to consider coaching England on a full-time basis, Will Carling’s love life was an issue of national importance, Jonah Lomu was bigger news than the Pope and the Wallabies were about as much use as a chocolate teapot.

Think back five years, to the end of the 1995-96 domestic season: Jack Rowell was making too much money to consider coaching England on a full-time basis, Will Carling’s love life was an issue of national importance, Jonah Lomu was bigger news than the Pope and the Wallabies were about as much use as a chocolate teapot. Remember? In which case, you may also remember that the first Courage League game was played on 9 September, and the campaign ended with a gloriously controversial Pilkington Cup final between Bath and Leicester on 4 May.
Halcyon days. Half a decade on, the great rugby men of Leicester ­ the Martin Johnsons, the Neil Backs, the Austin Healeys ­ are still up to their necks in thud and blunder in the middle of May, having kicked off their Zurich Premiership campaign at Wasps precisely 267 days ago.They are contemplating the small matter of two finals in less than a week, and if the Tiger-striped ?te emerge from those with a full complement of serviceable limbs, they can then start thinking about a six-and-a-bit-week Lions tour of Australia. Is it any wonder that these blokes are beginning to crave injury, rather than fear it? And have the movers and shakers of professional club rugby learned from this season’s excesses? Oh, puhleeese. These people are too busy chasing the dollar to register anything that cannot be recorded on a balance sheet.Most of the poor bloody infantry will be back on the parade ground by the start of July, and while no meaningful activity has been pencilled in for August ­ apart, that is, from the re-positioned Middlesex Sevens and the British Challenge Trophy game between the champions of England and Wales ­ the 2001-02 campaign will not end until mid-June.

The really lucky ones will then head off to the South Seas for a trio of rib-tickling Tests with Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. Pure luxury, as the Monty Python team used to say.The trouble with northern hemisphere union six years into the pay-for-play era is that everyone, everywhere wants everything. The pin-striped flatulents of the Rugby Football Union revel in the fact that the consistently high level of Premiership rugby has produced the finest national team in living memory, but soil their undies every time the club owners ask them to stump up a few bob from the Twickenham gate receipts.The owners rather fancy the idea of ruling the roost and negotiating independent broadcasting and sponsorship deals, but demand financial guarantees from the RFU at the same time. The average player considers himself worthy of a surgeon’s salary, but fails to understand the most basic law of oval-ball economics: the bigger the pay cheque, the longer the fixture list and the more visits to… well, the surgeon, funnily enough.This overwhelming urge to over-egg the pudding is weakening even the strongest pillar of the pro game in Europe.