Bulls coach left fuming

Bradford coach Steve McNamara blasted video referee Richard Silverwood's decision to disallow his side an early try as the Bulls' season came to an end with a 30-14 defeat by Wigan in the opening round of the engage Super League play-offs.

The Warriors went through to the semi-finals after overturning an 8-0 deficit with the aid of five tries, but McNamara believed the outcome could have been different had centre Chris Nero been awarded a 13th minute score.

"It was a disgraceful call, as bad as it gets," fumed McNamara. "I thought we had the worst decision of the season last week at Castleford but this was even worse."

He added: "It was clear the ball went back before it bounced forward. How can you get the decision so wrong?.

"We're really disappointed not to progress further in the competition. I'm really proud of my team. They've had a bit of rough justice.

"We've not had much luck all year. The only luck we've had has been bad luck."

The Bulls trailed 12-8 at half-time but suffered a body blow with the loss of captain and scrum-half Paul Deacon with a knee injury.

Wigan edged ahead thanks to first-half tries from Thomas Leuluai and Harrison Hansen and ran away with the tie in the second half with the aid of touchdowns from Mark Calderwood, Joel Tomkins and Gareth Hock.

"We just knew Bradford were hanging everything on a huge start and they were very vigorous," said Warriors coach Brian Noble.

"It was down to a little bit of patience on our part. We knew we would trouble them if we got some ruck speed."