WARRINGTON Wolves breezed to a 20-0 half time lead against a lacklustre Bradford Bulls at Odsal.

Wolves were clinical without ever really needing to be at their best, biding their time through a tight opening quarter before finally twisting the knife courtesy of tries from Ben Currie, Michael Monaghan, Trent Waterhouse and Lee Briers.

Wolves started with good intent, but couldn’t quite make it stick. Rhys Williams kicked on up the right wing to force the first of two early goal-line drop-outs, but Lee Briers was held up over the line by Matt Diskin before Trent Waterhouse lost the ball in the tackle to relieve some of the pressure. Wolves continued to press in the opening six minutes, but Bulls’ early line defence held strong.

Despite their strong start at the back, Bulls struggled to keep the ball in Wolves’ half, having to wait until the 13th minute before their first real attack of note. They still had tackles in the bag when Danny Addy hoisted a poor high kick out to Wolves’ right edge, where Rhys Williams cleaned up the danger.

A high shot from Garreth Carvell on his soon-to-be teammate then gave the hosts to attack again, but Jamie Foster fumbled the ball inside Wolves' 10m line to waste a promising chance to open the scoring.

That honour would eventually fall to Ben Currie, who took his side into the lead in almost effortless fashion by latching on to Stefan Ratchford’s pass and ghosting through a gaping hole on Bulls’ right flank to beat Foster to the corner.

Brett Hodgson missed the touchline conversion, but he soon had the chance to make amends when Briers doubled the visitor’s advantage just two minutes later. Briers also kick-started the move, with the ball moving up the right flank through Simon Grix and Rhys Williams before the stand off touched down in the corner. Hodgson’s conversion made it 10-0 after 25 minutes.

Bulls had enjoyed the best of the penalty count throughout the first half, but it was Wolves that made theirs count just before the break. First, a penalty for holding down gave the guests to pounce through Michael Monaghan, who was lightening quick out of dummy half to shrug off a poor Manese Manuokafoa tackle and plant the ball down next to the posts.

Then a wonderful break courtesy of Mike Cooper’s offload to Stefan Ratchford allowed Tyrone McCarthy to take Wolves within 15metres of Bulls’ line and much to the frustration of the home crowd, referee Richard Silverwood gifted Wolves a penalty when Monaghan attempted to burrow over on the last tackle. The visitors were clinical, taking advantage of Bulls’ weakening defence to charge over through Trent Waterhouse on the left. Hodgson added one of the goals and Wolves took a 20-0 lead into the break.

Bulls: Jamie Foster; Elliot Kear, Adrian Purtell, Keith Lulia, Michael Platt; Danny Addy, Heath L’Estrange; Nick Scruton, Matt Diskin, Adam Sidlow, John Bateman, Matty Blythe, James Donaldson. Subs: Manese Manuokafoa, Chev Walker, Ben Evans, Alex Mellor.

Wolves: Brett Hodgson; Rhys Williams, Simon Grix, Ryan Atkins, Chris Riley; Lee Briers, Stefan Ratchford; Garreth Carvell, Michael Monaghan, Paul Wood, Trent Waterhouse, Ben Westwood, Ben Currie. Subs: Chris Bridge, Adrian Morley, Mike Cooper Tyrone McCarthy.