Burgess scores 200th try as Hull KR beat Bradford

Betfred Super League

Hull KR (16) 40

Tries: Burgess 2, Broadbent, May, Litten, Davies, Minchella Goals: Hampshire 3, Martin 3

Bradford Bulls (10) 16

Tries: Armitage, Wynne, Ackers Goals: Hooley 2

Joe Burgess scored twice to reach the milestone of 200 career tries in Hull KR's home win against Bradford Bulls in Super League.

England international winger Burgess, 31, twice finished well in the left corner - firstly to open the scoring and secondly as part of a run of 18 unanswered points after half-time that put the result beyond doubt.

Hull KR's Tyrone May and Bradford's Connor Wynne produced sensational individual tries during a first half which ended 16-10 in the home side's favour.

Jez Litten, Tom Davies and Elliot Minchella crossed for the Robins in the second period, adding to Jack Broadbent's first-half score, to propel the reigning champions into Super League's top four.

Burgess, who began the match on 198 career tries, started his side's quest for a second successive win but Bradford quickly responded to his early opener.

Hull KR full-back Broadbent failed to cleanly gather Bulls captain Joe Mellor's grubber kick and centre Guy Armitage, who Bradford have confirmed will be leaving the club at the end of the season, took advantage to level the score.

Broadbent atoned by collecting Dean Hadley's pass to restore Hull KR's lead, which was extended when May carried the ball from deep inside his own half and escaped several Bulls tacklers on the right touchline to score.

Bradford's reply was another long-range effort as Wynne claimed a high kick by his own tryline and ran the length of the field to score - although a shoulder injury that he appeared to sustain earlier in the match meant that was the winger's final contribution of the contest.

Three quick tries by Burgess, Litten and Davies put the Robins out of sight but Bradford, who remain third from bottom of the table, showed great spirit throughout.

Mellor denied Burgess a hat-trick with an excellent last-gasp tackle and Andy Ackers crossed for the Bulls late on, but they conceded the final try of the match as Robins captain Minchella touched down under the posts for his side's seventh.

Hull KR head coach Willie Peters told BBC Radio Humberside:

"It's two points and that's what we wanted, but there's improvement in us as well.

"We spoke about [needing patience] before the game, got messages out around that and spoke about it at half-time, and then we probably didn't show enough [patience].

"When we show enough patience and we're happy to be in a set-for-set game, we usually come out the other side and put ourselves in games.

"We scored some decent tries tonight but we probably should have scored some more and the 16 points against us is probably the area we're not most pleased with."

Bradford Bulls head coach Kurt Haggerty told BBC Radio Leeds:

"In the first half we were resilient and we stayed in it, but in the second half we started poorly. I think we dropped the first three balls in the first three sets and that cost us a little bit.

"We found out before the second half that we'd lost Ryan Sutton [to a calf injury], who was already out of position in the back row, so that kind of threw us off.

"If I speak about attitude, application and effort - what the Bulls are all about - I thought it was pretty special, what they've done as a group of men down to the bare bones."

Hull KR: Broadbent; Davies, Hiku, Gildart, Burgess; Hampshire, May; Hadley, Litten, Amone, Whitbread, Batchelor, Minchella.

Interchanges: Luckley, Martin, Lawton, Dezaria.

Bradford: Aekins; Wynne, Hooley, Armitage, Ryan; Dean, Atkin; Sutton, Ackers, Gardiner, Fulton, Steinwede, Mellor.

Interchanges: Lewis, Gill, Leake, Doyle.

Referee: Tom Grant.