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Warrington Wolves 20 Bradford Bulls 36
Platt hat-trick as Bradford win
New boy Michael Platt grabbed an impressive hat-trick of tries as Bradford Bulls staged a magnificent recovery to make it two opening wins in the engage Super League this season.
Full-back Platt, snapped up from Castleford Tigers, took the honours as the Bulls fought back from 14-6 down just before the interval.
The hosts, boosted by last week's win at Wigan, went ahead with Lee Briers's penalty after 12 minutes for Jamie Langley's offside.
Paul Rauhihi was impressive up front for the Wolves and his pass to Rob Parker sent the former Bulls forward charging upfield for Briers to send Ben Westwood over for his first try to open up an 8-0 lead.
Bradford hit back with Platt's first touchdown with Michael Sullivan guilty of slack defence.
Rauhihi saved a possible try in the Bradford half when Lesley Vainikolo collected Briers's kick and raced clear, only to be halted by a thundering tackle from his Kiwi team-mate.
But it was Briers calling the shots for Warrington with his perfectly weighted kick allowing Westwood to grab his second try and open up a 14-6 lead.
Henry Fa'afili's blunder from the kick-off was a bonus for Bradford who almost took advantage with Vainikolo narrowly failing to latch onto Terry Newton's grubber.
Bradford were not to be denied just before the break with Joe Vagana's offload and Iestyn Harris's pass sending Australian Glenn Morrison skipping past Jon Clarke, Stuart Reardon and Briers – with Paul Deacon's second conversion cutting the interval deficit to 14-12.
The Bulls drew level when Briers's dropout failed to travel 10 metres and Deacon slotted over the penalty.
Deacon's 40-20 then set up a Vainikolo try before Harris's kick sent in James Evans.
Bradford made it three tries in eight minutes with Platt starting and finishing a slick move.
The Bulls were reduced to 12 men when Sam Burgess was sin-binned for holding down with Warrington immediately responding when Chris Leikvoll charged over, Briers converting.
But Platt capped a top show by picking up Brent Grose's kick to sprint 70 metres and complete his treble.
Warrington: Reardon, Fa'afili, Grose, Johnson, Barnett, Sullivan, Briers, Leikvoll, Clarke, Rauhihi, Wainwright, Westwood, Parker. Substitutes: M Gleeson, Wood, Pickersgill, Riley.
Bradford Bulls: Platt, St Hilaire, B Harris, Hape, Vainikolo, I Harris, Deacon, Vagana, Newton, Feather, Solomona, Langley, Morrison. Substitutes: Evans, Cook, Burgess, McAvoy.
Referee: A Klein (London).
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Friday 10 February 2012
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