Bulls stun below-par Leeds

The champions were below par but had two tries controversially disallowed by French video referee Thierry Alibert in a dramatic final quarter.

Winger Rikki Sheriffe was the Bulls' match-winner, pouncing for the all-important try 13 minutes from the end after the Rhinos had been reduced to 12 men with the sin-binning of Carl Ablett.

A second defeat of the season completed a miserable six days for Leeds following their Challenge Cup exit and marked an unhappy return to Odsal for ex-Bradford skipper Jamie Peacock on his 100th appearance for the club.

The Rhinos soaked up the early pressure and took the lead with their first serious foray into Bradford territory midway through the first half. Jamie Jones-Buchanan took a suspiciously-forward pass from Rob Burrow to force his way over for the game's first try and Kevin Sinfield added the goal.

That gave the champions the spur they clearly needed and they thought they had added to their score on 31 minutes when left winger Ryan Hall flew over at the corner but was brought back for a forward pass.

The Bulls made the most of the reprieve and drew level six minutes before the break when substitute forward Michael Worrincy took Paul Sykes' pass and wrong-footed Brent Webb for his first try for the club, with Sykes adding the conversion to lock the scores.

The Rhinos looked to have made the breakthrough on the hour when Burrow broke clear from deep inside his own half and took a return pass from Webb to touch down but referee Ian Smith sought assistance from the video official before awarding the try and Alibert disallowed it for an earlier infringement.

Leeds had Ablett sin-binned for dragging Sheriffe into touch after completing the tackle. The former Harlequins winger had cut the Rhinos defence to ribbons with a searing run out of defence and he popped up a minute later on the other wing to grab the match-winner after Hall had failed to deal with Ben Jeffries' high kick.

Sheriffe ought to have scored again after Steve Menzies broke clear and it looked to be a costly miss when young winger Kallum Watkins broke away and McGuire finished off the move. However, Alibert once more disallowed the try, ruling Jones-Buchanan had knocked on in the build-up and Bradford hung on for a precious win.