Just watched highlights of the four games between Leeds and Bradford in 1995, all Leeds victories, on a certain video site. For all of Innes, Iro, Schofield and Hanley tearing Northern apart, the guy who most stood out for the Loiners was Jimmy Lowes.

....but wasn't a patch on Mick Shaw (RIP).

The cup semi at Hudders in 96 was the game where the Bulls showed they were genuinely on the up. Jon Scales bagged a couple of tries and got us to Wembley for the first time in 23 years.

Again, a very opposite memory for me. The day it first really dawned on me that the world was changing and Leeds were getting left behind. I turned up fully expecting us to win that day.

It did lead to a bloody good final though.

IIRC Bradford's current coach was responsible for at least one of those tries. Hope your centres defend similarly tonight. We don't have George Mann at stand off these days.

Jon Scales - I remember one of the commentry team coming out with "It's not fair trying to tackle him when he's got two sofas strapped to his thighs"

George Mann at stand off! I'd forgotton about that. You can watch highlights of this game on You Tube now. Might have to have another look.

Franny's doing a more convincing job of being a head coach now than he was of being a winger in that game.



He was a big lad wasn't he? He did a great job for us for a couple of seasons, not sure where he ended up. He was the prototype big Bulls winger.

Is that you Ray?

He's a big lad he's a strong lad.

He's got the legs!

Does it actually feel like a gameday to anyone else today? Im not feeling it at the moment.

Used to live next door to me...refused a loan period away from Odsal after a dip in form...and ended up playing second rate rugby union for Sedgely Park

Know what you mean. Put it down to it being Thursday.

I'm quite looking forward to it. Tea at Brett's, a few pints in Arcadia. You can't go wrong.

After we get thrashed and I freeze to the western terrace I may have a different opinion.

You won't get thrashed. I'll be amazed if the sides manage 30 points between them.

And a 15 year old El Diablo appears on the footage after the Leeds try, waving a flag and sporting a dubious haircut....

Good times.

I don't think the weather is helping wither. There's still a few inches of snow on the ground up here. What happened to the Easter Thursday games in the 20's! Granted, it is an early one this year.

Glorious sunshine down here if that helps? No?

I tried.

It's nippy in Leeds city centre but pretty sunny on and off.

I'm watching it on the TV, its too cold, reminds me of when I was Scuba Diving in Norway - body shut down and I was saved by Dolphins.

- at least it was a good derby game

Incredible match. Best game I've seen all season. Point gained for us.

what he said,a great game to watch for any RL fan to watch.

I thought we very poor, poor discipline, and errors galore again. I really think we've missed a trick by playing Ablett and Vickery on the right as we have no threat down that side which means teams just have to concentrate on on shutting Moon and Hall down. Our defence in the first half was all over the place and although it improved as the game went on I dread to think what Catalans may do to us if we don't improve on tonights display.

The defence for that 10-15 mins period in the 1st half when Bradford were on a roll was poor.....we just couldn't slow the PTB down at all, but great effort to ALMOST nil them in the 2nd half under that pressure.

The attack......we need some threat on the right side. And we need to think ahead on the 4th tackle. Too often Sinfield is under pressure on his kicks because the play we put on the 4th is wrong for leading up to a 5th tackle kick down field......at one point in the 2nd half Burrow ran towards the wing on the 4th and Vickery went in at dummy half and gets a less than sharp pass to Sinfield which helped the Bulls close him down.

But to end on a positive, Achurch showed something tonight.

Tonight saw the lowest attendance at a regular season Leeds V Bradford SL game since 2002.

Every cloud eh?!