Sunday 3rd February 2013, 15:00 - Round:1

Francis Cummins enjoyed a dream start to his role of head coach as new-look Bradford Bulls overwhelmed Wakefield Trinity Wildcats 40-6 at the Provident Stadium.

Jamie Foster, Matty Blythe and Adam Sidlow all scored tries on debut as the Bulls, embarking on a re-building phase after almost going under last year, dominated the West Yorkshire derby from start to finish.

Foster, a specialist winger filling in at full-back, also kicked six goals from seven attempts to finish with a 16-point haul, while man-of-the-match Jarrod Sammut helped offset the absence of the injured Luke Gale at scrum-half with a brace of opportunist tries.

Much was expected of the Wildcats, who won their last seven league games of 2012 to snatch the last play-off spot from the Bulls, but they could not match the energy and enthusiasm of Cummins’ superbly-drilled outfit.

The visitors also sorely missed last year’s player of the year Tim Smith, who is still recovering from an ankle injury sustained in a pre-season friendly.

The Bulls had a spring in their step from the kick-off and opened the scoring with a scintillating eight-man handling move.

The lively Sammut made the decisive break and Foster handled twice before Chev Walker provided the final pass for winger Michael Platt, who crossed at the corner to make up for earlier dropping a certain try.

Foster then came up with the crucial pass for Blythe to go through a gap in the fragile Wakefield defence wide out, and Sidlow took Matt Diskin’s short pass to crash over for Bradford’s third try.

Foster kicked all three conversions to make it 18-0 and Bradford added a fourth try five minutes before half-time through the mercurial Sammut, who broke through the visitors’ first line of defence and held off full-back Richard Mathers in a sprint to the corner.

Any hint of a Wakefield fightback was snuffed out within seven minutes of the restart when Foster raced on to a grubber kick by Brett Kearney, who switched effectively from full-back to stand-off.

Sammut then jinked his way over for his second try and Foster’s goal made it 34-0, but Wakefield avoided a whitewash when skipper Danny Kirmond blocked Sammut’s kick and centre Dean Collis gathered the loose ball to race 70 metres for a try.

Former Bradford half-back Paul Sykes kicked the conversion but the Wildcats continued to spend most of the game penned inside their own half, and the Bulls rounded off the scoring with a seventh try from Kearney eight minutes from the end.