Strong wind up here at Odsal.

Team for today:

Mathers
Clare
Welham
Purtell
Caro
Gaskell
Addy
Kavanagh
O'Brien
Sidlow
Olbison
Haggerty
Pitts

Blythe
Walker
Ferguson
Lauaki

Slow start. Fev take advantage and score in the corner.

Poor numbering up in defence on the short side.

Came from a charge down of Gaskell's kick on the 5th tackle.

0-6

Gaskell strolls in from 10 metres.

Kavanagh being helped off. Doesn't look good. Walker on.

6-6

Great kick from Addy. Try to Caro.

10-6

Almost carbon copy try.

Caro in again.

Backs looking good. Forwards less dominant.

Mathers having a decent game.

16-6.

Fev try to Thackeray. Ferguson guilty of ball watching.

16-12

Halftime.

Quite even at the moment.

Scrappy 2nd half so far.

Caro try and hat-trick.

22-12

Looks like Leigh aren't going to go through the season unbeaten...

Not a convincing win in very poor conditions.

Big question marks over the selection of both Mathers and Lauaki I feel. Neither look fit or interested, but at least Mathers played longer than 5 minute bookends of half time.

It's like déjá vu....

I thought mathers had a decent game, i watched him and he was certainly pulling players into line where he wanted them. Also made some good tackles on our line, fitness told in the end

Thought Mathers had a good first half. Second half he looked a bit dodgy under the bomb and he was struggling for fitness by the end.

Overall more good than bad.

Sidlow was immense.

Why after losing Kavanagh did Lauaki only get 10 minutes?

What is the point of having him in the 17? What Lowes sees in him is beyond me.

Of the other new boys Haggerty worked hard. Walker has a decent offload and Welham looked decent.

Thought Fev were more dominant up front. We looked less effective when Sidlow was off. The sooner Clough is back the better too.

Round of applause for all the players of both teams, the wind was icy and the conditions were very hard.

Overall the Bulls finished the game the stronger and fitter, and our tackling also improved.

But we do keep making it hard for ourselves. Some unforced errors at predictable moments meant we gave ourselves way too much defending to do. But for the most part we did it, although I was tearing my hair out late second half when they scored from that kick - if I had set off, I could have got to it before Fev, yet we had 3 men none of whom showed the slightest interest, despite all having at least 15 metres start on the opposition.

One worrying thing to me was that overall Fev seemed to win the majority of the collisions, and - with a couple of notable exceptions esp. Sidlow - we found it hard to do so. This gave loads of extra territory to Fev, and so we spent too much time defending our half.

Lauaki cam on and did one promising hit-up - and then never touched the ball for about a week! He ran around and threw himslef at some tackles, but I don't know what the plan was - if he can run hard and straight - as apparently he can - why didn't we use him? One time especially in the middle near their posts, I was sure he'd take the pass running on towards the sticks - but it went the other way. A bit puzzling.

Also, we never looked like getting a clean break through the middle from a pass, most progress relied on scoots and forward plunges. Maybe it wasn't the conditions for it.

2 points well earned against a handy looking fev side in heavy conditions. I think we have the foundation of a very good team, our pack looks solid, we have threat in the outside backs and addy/ gaskell will be too good at halfback for the majority of this league. Mathers had a good first hit out to be fair but was finished after 65 min, hardly surprising with no preseason. Luaki cannot be allowed to play just 10mins in conditions like that, it's not enough from the bench, if that's all he's got someone else should have taken that bench spot.

Sidlow was very impressive, Haggerty had a good game and Caro finished off his tries very well.

Decent start with enough to work on as conditions improve....it doesn't get any warmer watching summer Rugby at odsal in Feb!

Yeh Mathers did nothing wrong and saved a try or two in defence. Losing Kavanagh and Lauaki barely doing 10 minutes left us a little short up front. What the point of his 5 minutes either side of half time was is beyond me!


I thought Sidlow was great again, Welham was very dangerous and whoever plays outside him will get some space. Not a vintage performance but good enough to get the result against a Fev side who I reckon will go well this year based on that performance.

Decent 2 points earned and with Leigh losing, it shows we can't just expect to turn up and win.

Losing Kavanagh was a blow, but with him Sidlow, Clough and Walker/Clark, we have a decent set of forwards.

Defeinsively Mathers was good, but offered very little in attack.

Caro impressed me. His hat trick will get the headlines but defensively and his defusing of kicks was very good.

Lauaki will get the stick for his whole 8 minutes work, but it's Lowes that the issue here.

Quite frankly his use of the bench was disgusting and it was all the same mistakes that lost us the MPG being repeated. Lauaki doing 8 mins, when we've already got one prop injured.. Blythe went on for 15 mins then was brought off while Mathers and Haggerty were on their knees. His use of it his so so poor and it needs sorting ASAP

Good to watch a live game after such a long gap, even if it was freezing. On the posisitves Sidlow was immense. He made plenty of ground and I thought brought much more aggression against a tough Fev pack than he did last year. He put on a couple of monster hits that lifted the team and the fans. Mathers made a one on one tackle that saved a try. Not sure anyone else could have done that. My main plus from the new players was WElham. He lost the ball in contact three times but was solid as a rock in defence. He looks like a great winger's centre in the Paul Loughlin mode. Lowes said they'd played together at KR and wanted to biold that partnership. It was a good hit out against a tough team. On the downside what the hell does Lauaki bring? Ten minutes and zero impact from an impact prop. Lowes hasn't learnt from this has he? We cannot afford to play every game with sixteen players. Addy was quiet despite his great kick for one of Caro's tries. I feel that if we had a good organiser at scrum half the gap would have been bigger today. Overall quite pleased though, we didn't lose did we

Wish I could pick up a weeks wage for less than 12 minutes work.
Lowes needs to get real and stop wasting a bench space.
Thought Welham ran Sidlow close for MOM. Mathers was ok but offered nothing in attack from a key position and was at fault for Fevs 2nd try, yet to be convinced at expense of a youngster.

TBF i think Mathers made the covering tackle before Fev scored 2nd try and wasn't in position to defuse kick

Good performance in terrible conditions against a good fev side. Fev played well and were solid up the middle.

Sidlow was the MOM by a country mile for me. The usual suspects like Pitts, Purts and Fergie played well and caro took his trys very well. He also did well to take a fev attacking kick on the touch line and go down without being pushed out of play. Mathers went well and was solid enough at the back. He made a good one on one try saver. He offered little in attack but it wasn't that type of game.

Hope Ben isn't out long. We will need him back as soon as aswell as clough

Id be more disappointed if i was a Bradford fan than fev after seeing that performance today -

Bradford plodded it up the middle for 75 mins of game with not much reward, id be brave enough to say that our forwards made a lot more metres overall than the Bradford forwards less a Sidlow break near the end

Only 6 pts scored against a PT team despite all the territory in that second half too, you definately need a proper 7 to add some needed quality n that off the cuff play, Gaskell cant and wont do it allon his own all season

I saw the predictions on here of 20+ pt victories but at times it was hard to tell who was FT and PT - i think a neutral wouldve struggled till maybe the last 10 mins or so

Onwards and upwards for us - the second hardest away game already out of the way with nothing to be ashamed at

A fantastic impartial view there. For all the metres gained, it's points that count and we certainly scored more than you. Didn't we?


While not a classic game the Bulls ground out a win against a pretty good Fev side for the first game of the season.

It's hard to be disappointed with a win for the first game of the season (and without a proper 7 too) and I'm sure we will get better. Points in the bag though, which is what matters.

That's pretty much been us since we've been relegated. Half speed, but still pick up wins. As for the need of a proper 7, we've been saying that since last year.