Warrington beat Bradford to climb to second

Image source, SWpix.com

• Published24 May 2026, 17:03 BST

Betfred Super League

Warrington (14) 26

Tries: Thewlis, Thomas, Hopoate, Irwin, Ashton Goals: Irwin 3

Bradford (6) 12

Tries: Gill, Nikorima Goals: Atkin, Hooley

Warrington Wolves beat Bradford Bulls to maintain their 100% home record this season and turn up the heat at the top of Super League.

Warrington made it nine home wins from nine in all competitions to climb to second in the table, behind leaders Leeds Rhinos on points difference, and they have a game in hand.

Eighteen-year-old Ewan Irwin impressed and the half-back scored their key fourth try as well as kicking six points.

Josh Thewlis, Luke Thomas, Albert Hopoate and Matty Ashton also scored for Warrington, while Jamie Gill and Jayden Nikorima went over for Bradford.

Bradford can argue about what might have been - video referee Liam Rush disallowed Connor Wynne's try just before half-time, which would have closed the gap to 14-10.

Bradford's ill-discipline cost them at the start and Warrington took full advantage to race into a 10-0 lead.

Jayden Okunbor was sin-binned for a high tackle on Thewlis and the Warrington full-back picked himself up to open the scoring, dummying inside after five minutes.

Bradford's kamikaze play continued and they were reduced to 11 men when Chris Atkin was green-carded, and Thomas powered over the line to ground the ball in the 11th minute, despite the best efforts of Caleb Aekins and Will Gardiner.

That try was given by Rush and he denied Warrington a third score when he ruled that Toafofoa Sipley failed to ground the ball.

Thirty seconds later, they did score when Hopoate touched the ball down acrobatically in the corner with his right hand.

Bradford had shown nothing as an attacking force, but they burst into life three minutes before half-time when 20-year-old Gill powered over between the posts on only his fifth Bulls appearance.

Wynne thought he had further reduced the arrears when he scored just before the interval, but Rush controversially ruled Waqa Blake had committed a foul in the build-up.

Bradford failed to make their advantage count when James Bentley was sin-binned for a high tackle, and Irwin played a dummy before scoring under the posts in the 50th minute.

Ashton rubber-stamped the win when he raced from the halfway line down the left and under the posts to make it 26-6 on the hour.

Nikorima spun round and weaved his way through the Warrington defence 11 minutes from time.

Bradford have lost all six away games this season.

'It's a missed opportunity' - reaction

Warrington coach Sam Burgess told Sky Sports:

"I'm pleased with parts of it. I thought our energy was much better today. I thought we worked hard for each other."

On Ewan Irwin: "He's a wonderful player, we all know that. But this level requires him to develop and improve and we'll see that over the next 18 months.

"The great thing about Ewan is that there's a lot of noise around him. You're all talking about him, which is righty so, and he's very balanced. He comes from a wonderful family and he's very humble.

"At times, I've tried to push him to be a bit more assertive, but that will come as time goes on."

Bradford coach Kurt Haggerty told BBC Radio Leeds:

"It's a missed opportunity. I thought the game was there for the taking, even in the first half, when we had to defend for 25 minutes.

"I thought we still did enough to go in at half-time in a place where we could come and win the game. So, yeah, it's more a sense of frustration.

"I think it's a side of the group that no matter what adversity hits us, we keep going, we keep scrapping and ultimately as poor as we played today, we still had a chance of winning."

On Connor Wynne's disallowed try: "I think it's another big moment that was taken out of our own hands. It's difficult to class that as obstruction when his back is against the player."

Warrington: Thewlis; Ashton, King, Smith, Hopoate; Irwin, Hayes; Thomas, Powell, Byrne, Philbin, Bentley, Currie.

Interchanges: Walker, Sipley, Crowther, Tanginoa

Bradford: Aekins; Okunbor, Chamberlain, Blake, Wynne; Nikorima, Atkin; Doro, Souter, Peposhi, Fulton, Russell, Gardiner.

Interchanges: Hooley, Gill, Ruan, Hallas.

Referee: Chris Kendall

Related topics

• Warrington Wolves
• Rugby League