BULLS RUN IN SIX TRIES TO OPEN 26

Bradford Bulls ran in six tries to seal a 30-12 victory in the first outing of 2026 at a cold Eco-Power Stadium this afternoon – with six different players registering scores.

Head coach Kurt Haggerty named seven new faces in his starting line up, with youngster Harvey Ward making his first senior appearance off the interchange bench. 

Despite an early sin bin seeing us reduced to 12 men, It was two of the new recruits who scored our first tries, the first coming through Cook Islander Esan Marsters, who stepped and spun past three defenders to score. 

A number of promising breaks went without reward for the Bulls but Jayden Nikorima intercepted a pass and raced home from 60 metres out to extend our advantage. 

A familiar face, the Fijian Flyer Waqa Blake then crashed onto a bullet pass from Rowan Milnes to stretch out and score our third. 

The Dons got a score on the board late on in the first half with Connor Jones sniping over from dummy half. 

Having forced a drop out from the kick off, the Bulls started the second half in perfect fashion with Zac Fulton crashing over on the last tackle. 

The home side hit back soon after, with Cory Aston darting over underneath the posts. 

Both sides rung the changes as the game wore on but two tries in the last ten minutes added further gloss to a productive afternoon for the Bulls. 

The first, an incredible individual effort from Luke Hooley, who leapt to collect a high kick before racing 70 metres to dive over in the corner. 

The final scoring act of the contest came via Jamie Gill, who was the happy recipient of a ricochet off a Doncaster boot, scoring underneath the posts. 

BRADFORD BULLS: Caleb Aekins, Jayden Okunbor, Esan Marsters, Waqa Blake, Ethan Ryan, Jayden Nikorima, Rowan Milnes, Eribe Doro, Andy Ackers, Brandon Douglas, Dan Russell, Zac Fulton, Ryan Sutton. INTERCHANGES: Luke Hooley, Joe Keyes, Connor Wynne, Harvey Ward, Ronan Michael, Alfie Leake, Mitch Souter, Jamie Gill, Eliot Peposhi, Leon Ruan, Sam Hallas.

TRIES: Marsters, Nikorima, Blake, Fulton, Hooley, Gill

GOALS: Okunbor 1/1, Milnes 2/5