Wigan were better all around the park yesterday - did any one of the Bulls win their personal battle against their opposite number? Personally I can't think of one that did.

Having no recognised half backs killed us. I know Potter doesn't like the Wigan defensive tactics but he needs to adopt them as they are very effective. The Wigan defence seemed to have an age to get organised, constanstly getting three men in the tackle and turning the man with the ball in the process of completing the tackle.

Did we get screwed on a couple of decisions - possibly, we had two tries disallowed for offside, one of which at least debateable. Harrison Hansen's try in the first half, to me anyway should not have stood. Watching the try on SSN last night I thought Gleeson takes Walker out getting nowhere near the ball. The look on Hansens face suggests he thought it was dodgy!

Although these decisions wouldn't have effected the result, they may have allowed us to stay in the game a little longer.

Our right hand side defence needs to be worked upon as Wigan went through it with ease at times with the majority of the tries coming in down that side. Our ball retention at times was woeful, and similar to last week, when things went against us heads started to drop. We appear to be a confidence team and need to get in front.

Wigans passing and dummy runners were superb, Sam Tomkins receiving the ball at second or third receiver killed us. The lad is some player. The number of times they managed to make the over lap was very worrying from our defensive pattern point of view. At times they did nothing spectacular in terms of offloads and clever moves other than move the ball quickly from right to left (and not close to the gain line). I wouldn't trust half of the players out there yesterday to pass it greater than 10 yards without it going wrong!

After the game against Leeds I think it's fair to say everyone felt things had improved. Next weeks game may tell us which Bradford Bulls performance was the norm! Are we the disorganised mess we saw yesterday (and last season), or are we the side capable of giving a great effort against the best sides?

One last thing on the Wigan game. Although Kearney was probably our best player yesterday he's being asked to do too much for me. If he's playing stand-off, play him there in the defensive line. Royston is not benefitting from not knowing where the hell he's supposed to be. In the pre-season friendlies he was one of our better players playing specifically at full-back, not this hybrid SO/FB depending on who's got the ball.

Providing we've no new injuries this week (and Herbert is fit), I would change it a little. I think Chev would be better utilised coming off the bench in the second row with Scruton replacing one of the props at the same time. We don't have any real impact players and these two are probably the nearest we have. Add Diskin/L'Estrange into that combo change and we might see a lift in performance around the 20 min mark.

By doing this I'd move Ah Van to centre and bring Ainscough onto the wing. The lad is chomping at the bit based on his Twitter feeds. Plus, he's another that adds energy and enthusiasm to the side. Kearney and Herbert at half.

Forwards wise, Hargreaves shouldn't play loose - we need his workrate at prop. Bring Addy into loose forward and add some more creativity to the side.

The bench would look like Scruton, Walker, Diskin and AN other (as I'm personally not convinced by Koppy)

Undoubtedly first choice HBs would have given more scoring chances but you have conceded the second most points in SL which is a worry, given you have faced 2 of the best teams.

Yeah, cos you would never wish injury on anyone would you?

Do you understand what context means?

I'd never wish injury on a player because he isn't good enough to play a certain position. Especially when he's given his all.

So it is ok to wish injury on someone for any other reason then?

Glad you cleared that up.

I wish injury on lots of people, all the time.
Usually at work though....

Is that a deliberate contradiction or just your usual sarcasm?

I'd be a damn sight more worried if it was after we had faced two of the worst teams! And we scored a lot more against Leeds than most teams are likely to do this season.

Any other reason??

Where did I say that?

Well you said that as long as they are playing out of position AND trying then you would not wish an injury on anyone. Therefore, it is fair to assume that if someone IS playing in position and/or not trying then it is open season?

Or shall we be a bit more honest and admit you only wished injury on McGuire cos he was a Leeds player?

Can we stay on topic please rather than raking over old coals?

Edit :Just read Bullseye's comment. Fine by me.

Yesterday as my body began to shut down from boredom and hypothermia I hit upon the idea of giving stadium tours to the terminally ill. The uncertainty of death can be upsetting so where better to prepare for the grave than Odsal on game day. Like the grave, it is cold, wet and silent.

The only bright spot was seeing Adey's lovely face again.

Think we may see a few changes to the 17 after yesterday. I thought that both Kopczak and Sibbit were totally ineffective and their places must be under threat. Koppy seems to have left his pre season form in the pre season. Barring one decent ball steal yesterday he made very few yards and didn;t get stuck in at all, in the end he was hardly noticable. He needs to up his workrate.

Sibbit seems to have struggled in the first two games with getting off quick enough at the PTB. He needs to get up to speed. Otherwise I can see him losing out once Donaldson is fit again.

I would certainly bring in Addy for one of them next week.

Agree with all of that. I thought Scruton & Hargreaves did ok yesterday without being fantastic (although one particular drive from Bryn was superb and they just couldn't put him down). Koppy though seems to be back to the poor form, and I'd be tempted to throw someone with something more to prove in next week (like Crossley). Sibbit was another who looked good in pre-season but hasn't shown anything yet when it matters.

The only thing in the back of my mind is that am I being too harsh on them, as the team in itself isn't performing great, so can we expect individuals to be any different. But how long do you give them? If picking on form, as Potter said he would, I think we may see one or both left out next week, if there's someone else fit who can replace them.

If we're still playing Sykes in the halves though and Kearney is having to do way too much all by himself, then sadly I can't see it mattering who we play off the bench.

I think if we're struggling in the halves we need to create some impact of the bench to give them some space. I'd have Scruton on the bench for that very reason. I also think putting Addy in the side at loose forward or at stand off would take some pressure off Kearney.

I'm not convinced we should make Sykes play at stand off again. We know what to expect. Long term it won't do him or us any good. As for Southernwood in pre season he din't break any pots against poor opposition. I wouldn't put him in a struggling side.

Despite missing first-choice half-backs Kyle Briggs and Marc Herbert, both sidelined by injury, Potter refused to seek excuses, and that just how it should be, but for the fans, the disruption caused by the loss of our new scrum half shortly before MM, and then having no first choice halfbacks, in a brand new squad, against the champions, should not be underestimated.
Herbert is a promising young Aussie half and as BB said is our first choice #7 - if we can get him on the bloody field.


Absolutely. Briggs is out for at least a month, though, and so the disruption will continue.

Again great attitude, we must and will just get on with it. But there's nothing wrong with stating simple facts in mitigation.

I love this guy. He is just brutally honest. We did make a lot of errors, and it was largely down to playing under the cosh, against the champions, and trying to come from behind.

And whilst I am not going to moan about our disallowed "tries", people who bemoan our score should be aware that we did actually find ways to get through Wigan's defence, but nearly every time we did, an infringement was found. Suffice to say that there was not much in those decisions, and the score would have been much less cruel (though still a loss) had we got on the board the points which we deserved.



The final scoreline was a bit cruel, but it wasn't a wipeout, it's just that Wigan were able to put the points on the board whenever opportunities arose, and we couldn't. Our score in no way reflects the good ground we made, or the time we spent inside their 20.

Our score also does reflect what was and is a cruel and ultra-hard-working Wigan defence, you only have to contrast the wide open spaces on the Bulls flanks to the position when we were attacking, where it didn't seem to matter where on the filed we were, there were always 3 or 4 men there to make the tackle. You don't get a defence tlike that, or organisation like that, by accident and if I ha dbeen watching anyone else than the Bulls, I would say it was a pleasure to watch.

And on that note, as an England/GB fan, it is great to see the continued exploits of the superb Sam Tomkins, surely one of the best players the English game has produced for a very long time.

It was serious, but on re-reading it's got all the hallmarks of Terrace Singer. On the one hand you conceded 40+ at home to a team that had only scored 16 against the worst Saints side I've seen in a while & 30+ to a decaying Leeds side. On the other hand I expect both to be there at the end of the season. None of which would have changed with first choice HBs.

It's nice when he brings it out occasionally.

That's either a most appropriate euphemism, or a cause for (my) serious concern...

Face, you fool, not wallet...

You keep the latter safe for when the mighty Tigers roar into town in March & I am guesting on the airwaves with Mad Mick. I will need plenty of lubrication.

I thought Koppy and Sibbitt were a little improved from their performances of last week when both were poor and the absence of another experienced forward would suggest Potter will stick with them.

One huge area of concern is the period at the end of both halves in both games. Not only have we failed to score late in the half we have conceded a huge proportion of all opposition tries in the 10 mins to half time and the final 15 mins of the game. A lack of half backs will exacerbate this problem as we do not use the ball as we should such as kicking to the full back thereby inviting more pressure etc. Nevertheless, it is a worry that we have fatigued quite so badly in both matches.

If we can cut out the errors and get a better completion rate that would be a start. Wigan scored each time we made an error in our own half in the first 40mins.

According to the SL website we are joint top for errors made with a whopping 35 in the first two games. On the other side of the coin we have missed fewest tackles of any side in SL!

Clearly if we up the completion rate we'll be harder to beat. We may struggle to create things without our halves but we can at least make it harder for the opposition by not giving them easy ball.

Top for errors.

Pretty well top for team changes from last year.





You would hope that as the guys get more used to playing with each other (maybe need to rephrase that...) the error count will plummet?

Many of the errors come from players who are old enough to know better! A few came from our makshift halves not being able to pass very well and combinations not being very slick which is understandable.

At least we got to see what we should be aspiring to yesterday. Wigan's attacking play throughout was excellent. Every forward drive had dummy runners and each backline play was executed very well with every player timing their run and the pass perfectly. Hopefully we will emulate some of this with Briggs and Herbert back in the side. The current tactic of forward plunges up the middle or "give it to Kearney" aren't going to fool anyone.