Gale’s pep talk helps relegated Bulls end on a high

AS captain, with your team staring at an embarrassing defeat that will be remembered for who knows how long, what do you say to garner the requisite response?
Luke Gale is mobbed after scoring his fourth and match winning try for Bradford.Luke Gale is mobbed after scoring his fourth and match winning try for Bradford.
Luke Gale is mobbed after scoring his fourth and match winning try for Bradford.

Luke Gale found himself in that very position on Saturday with Bradford Bulls in a state of disarray and capitulating to a London Broncos side that had won just once in the last 12 months.

Admittedly, given this was the final day of their season and both teams had long since been consigned to relegation, there was little other than pride to play for at a sun-drenched Barnet FC.

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But it is just that – pride, spirit and character – that has under-pinned Bradford throughout their slide into the Championship, all their battles with administration and financial woe that, inevitably, brought the ex-World Club champions to their knees.

Since that fate was confirmed on July 20, they had won three of their next five games to show, as they contemplated life in the second tier for the first time in more than 40 years, they would not go down with a whimper

Yet here they were, somehow losing 30-16 – Bradford had been 16-0 in front – after watching Josh Drinkwater unpick them yet again to send in prop Nick Slyney untouched between their posts.

Even the large contingent of vociferous Bradford fans, so used to celebrating Grand Final wins but intent on leaving Super League in riotous good humour, were momentarily left silent.

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How horrible would it be, such an iconic name in the sport, slipping out to a team that had lost 26 of its 27 games this season?

“I can remember saying just that with about 30 minutes to go after they’d scored that try,” admitted Gale, the scrum-half playing his final game before leaving for Castleford Tigers.

“I said ‘Boys, that feeling in there (dressing room) in half hour’s time, if we don’t pull ourselves out, will just spoil everything. It will spoil the whole year, the weekend and it will spoil everything we’ve done.’

“I said we can’t fail in those 30 minutes and we had to dig ourselves out of the hole we’d got in.

“To be fair, they responded and we did dig ourselves out.”

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Fittingly, it was Gale – who spent three years with the London club – who got the decisive score, gaining his fourth try of the afternoon with just three minutes remaining to snatch victory.

But there had been so much more drama in between those two points.

Bradford duly roused after that pep talk to score three tries in 10 minutes to get back in front, Brett Kearney, the Australian full-back ending his fine five-year stint at the club, Jay Pitts – from Gale’s lovely pass – and then Gale himself after Kearney had put Tom Olbison clear.

However, against the run of play, Drinkwater – the Australian scrum-half whose ingenuity caused havoc for Bradford – sliced over for his second in the 70th minute before adding a difficult kick to put London 36-34 ahead. Relieved Bradford, who gave debuts to 19-year-olds Emmerson Whittle and Brad Adams, revived again, though, as Pitts raced clear to put Gale over.

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His jubilation was only bettered when forward Manase Manuokafoa scored his first try in two years in the final seconds.

“We do a mile Nude Run if we don’t score during the season and poor Nas was set for it again,” explained Gale, about the prop who now heads for Widnes Vikings as one of eight players who featured on Saturday to leave.

“Last year he needed a bottle of Gaviscon and a set of new lungs after it! He was saying ‘Please, please, please just get me a try’.

“That’s why everyone went a bit mad at the end. It was great.

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“Even all the lads are saying it’s a bit weird I got four, though, as I might get the odd one but I’m not known for scoring tries, certainly never that many.”

Gale’s first two had come in the opening four minutes. Joe Arundel made it 16-0 before the collapse started as they inexplicably conceded four tries in 19 minutes.

The excellent Matt Cook, Joe Keyes, Drinkwater and Erjon Dollapi all crossed each time improved by Drinkwater. Gale admitted: “It just sums up our season doesn’t it? We do everything the hard way! We nailed our game plan for the first 10 minutes and then just probably coasted a bit. To be fair to London, they don’t go away. They really don’t.

“Jimmy (Lowes) gave us a bit of a blowing at half-time which we knew we were going to get.

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“In the end it all showed our character and it was a good send-off for everyone.”

London Broncos: Walker; Dixon, Farrar, Thomas, Atkins; Keyes, Drinkwater; Slyney, Moore, Wallace, McMeeken, Vea, Cook. Substitutes: Everett, Krasniqi, Wicks, Dollapi

Bradford Bulls: Kearney; Foster, Arundel, Walker, Henry; Addy, Gale; Manuokafoa, O’Brien, Baldwinson, Olbison, Pitts, Donaldson. Substitutes: Mellor, Whittle, Conroy, Adams.

Referee: J Cobb (Manchester).