Bradford Bulls 30–10 Wests Tigers — 2006 World Club Challenge
Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield · Attendance: 19,207
Data last verified: 11 August 2026.
2006 World Club Challenge: Bradford Bulls 30–10 Wests Tigers, at Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield.
Sourcing caveat: No try-scoring minutes were identified in sources found.
Scorers
| Bradford Bulls | Tries: Fielden (2); Bai (2); Gene Goals: Harris (4 conversions, 1 penalty goal) |
| Wests Tigers | Tries: Fitzhenry; Hodgson |
Teams
| Bradford Bulls | Wests Tigers | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michael Withers | Fullback | Brett Hodgson | 1 |
| 2 | Marcus Bai | Wing | Shannon McDonnell | 2 |
| 3 | Ben Harris | Centre | Dean Collis | 3 |
| 4 | Shontayne Hape | Centre | Paul Whatuira | 4 |
| 5 | Lesley Vainikolo | Wing | Jamaal Lolesi | 5 |
| 6 | Karl Pryce | Five-eighth | Daniel Fitzhenry | 6 |
| 7 | Iestyn Harris | Halfback (c) | Scott Prince | 7 |
| 8 | Stuart Fielden | Front row | Ryan O'Hara | 8 |
| 9 | Ian Henderson | Hooker | Robbie Farah | 9 |
| 10 | Andy Lynch | Front row | John Skandalis | 10 |
| 11 | Brad Meyers | Second row | Anthony Laffranchi | 11 |
| 12 | Paul Johnson | Second row | Chris Heighington | 12 |
| 13 | Jamie Langley | Lock | Ben Galea | 13 |
| Substitutes | ||||
| 14 | Joe Vagana | Bryce Gibbs | 14 | |
| 15 | Stanley Gene | Liam Fulton | 15 | |
| 16 | Brett Ferres | Bronson Harrison | 16 | |
| 17 | Matt Cook | Sam Harris | 17 | |
| Brian Noble | Coach | Tim Sheens | ||
Match officials
| Referee | Steve Ganson |
| Player of the match | Stuart Fielden (Bradford) |
Match report
Bradford completed their third World Club Challenge title, equalling Wigan's record, with a dominant win over the reigning NRL premiers. The Tigers, in only their sixth season since the Balmain-Western Suburbs merger and missing key men including an injured Benji Marshall, never lived with Bradford's forward power. Prop Stuart Fielden was immense, scoring twice and earning man-of-the-match honours, while winger Marcus Bai also crossed twice out wide. Stanley Gene added a fifth Bradford try as Iestyn Harris booted the extras. Wests Tigers' only response came from Daniel Fitzhenry and captain Brett Hodgson. Confusion over the tackle count under referee Steve Ganson briefly disrupted play early on, but it did little to derail a comprehensive home victory that reinforced Super League bragging rights over the NRL in the mid-2000s.This match belonged to the modern, annual World Club Challenge era launched in 2000, pitting that season's NRL Premiers directly against the same season's Super League Grand Final winners in a single fixture. The fixture as a whole began as a single unofficial match in 1976 and was repeated only sporadically through the 1980s and early 1990s: it wasn't played at all in 1988, 1990, 1993, or 1995-96, the last of those gaps caused by the Super League War splitting Australian rugby league into two rival competitions. The 1997 attempt to relaunch it as a 22-club, two-conference "World Club Championship" — five Australasian clubs touring Europe and five European clubs touring Australasia simultaneously — reportedly lost more than $5 million and was shelved for three years. It returned in 2000 as the simple one-off match still used today, missing only during the brief 2015-2017 multi-match "World Club Series" expansion (when the marquee fixture still determined the World Club Challenge title, alongside several other NRL-Super League pairings played the same week) and the 2021-2022 Covid-19 cancellations and the 2025 withdrawal by Penrith Panthers. The result here was Bradford Bulls' 3rd World Club Challenge title and the 14th staging of the fixture since its unofficial 1976 debut.