Gutsy Bradford run Wigan close

Bradford, despite their dismal Super Form and playing most of the game a man short, gave Wigan a real scare in their tie at Odsal yesterday.

Gareth Raynor was sent off in the first half for a high tackle that saw Sam Tomkins take no further part in the match.That should have been the cue for Wigan to stride away with it, but the Bulls, with two tries from Patrick Ah Van, took them all the way before losing 26-22.

In the day's other Challenge Cup tie, St Helens were far too good for Featherstone Rovers, winning by a massive 70-0.

No doubt about the most dramatic tie of the weekend; that was on Saturday at Wakefield, where Kirk Dixon kicked an added-time penalty from the touchline to give Castleford a 20-18 win over their neighbours.

Cas had been 16-6 down before fighting back to level the scores, after which the two sides had a series of drop-goal attempts to try to win it before Dixon, who had earlier missed an easy conversion, came up trumps.

The most one-sided game was on Friday night at Warrington, where the Super League-leading Wolves put 112 points on Swinton, the league-leaders two divisions below. Joel Monaghan scored four tries, but was put in the shade by Lee Briers, who finished with a club record 44 points from 16 goals and a hat-trick of tries.

The rest of the last eight is made up by Leeds, who came from behind to beat Harlequins, and the Humberside pair, Hull and Hull KR, who had comfortable wins at Widnes and Salford respectively.

The draw for the quarter-finals is this evening.