I was excited we'd signed the likes of Matt Diskin and Bryn Hargreaves, as they were damn improvements on what we had in 2010, and came with excellent reputations.

I thought and still think Elima was a class signing.

Hear hear. I think people were expecting Cameron Smith to replace Wayne Godwin, Watmough to replace Worrincy and Darius Boyd to replace Sheriffe.

Hargreaves is an English Glenn Hall. Nothing better.

Nah I wouldn't say so. I'm not saying he's international quality, but he puts a lot of hard work in, and certainly earlier in the season was making a load of hard yards after the collision. He also spends about twice as long on the pitch as Hall did.

Hargreaves to me is a solid if unspectacular player.

Having Elima back will be a massive boost.

You have a good holiday mick?

Not really as I'm not looking forward to Sunday and the visit of Wigan, but I'm sure come 12 noon on Sunday the confidence levels will be peaking.

But just remember while everything isn't going to plan this season on the field, spare a thought for our Grandfathers and Great Grandfathers who we're watching Northern in the early 1920's when we finsihed last out of all 36 sides with the following playing record: P34 W2 D1 L31 = 5 pts.

I shall spare a thought while watching the game on sunday, when is this questions table getting updated

you must be 5/6 games behind lol

They'd have won all of those if the forwards had laid a platform for Deacs to plan the attack.

Royston
Ah Van
Platt
Whitehead
Raynor
Briggs
Jeffries
Lynch
Diskin
Hargreaves
Olbison
Elima
Langley

Burgess
Lestrange
Koppy
Sibbit

And no 'tache either.

Been doing my [url=http://wigan.rlfans.com/news.php?readmore=1028=#FF0000match preview[/url for cherryandwhite.co.uk and aside from wanting to improve your 38.5points conceded per match defence in the last 6 league games, I discovered that at Bradford (in Super League games) the forwards (52% of tries) have outscored backs (48% of tries) this season and compared to every club, bar Huddersfield, that's way, way off the mark (you can see comparisons in my match preview)

To have Forwards outscoring backs is a pretty condemning indictment for either your style of play or the quality in your back line. That should never be happening! It shows were your investment has to be for next year. I mean your squad numbers 1 to 7 have scored just 11 tries, our 19 year old Josh Charnley has scored 10 on his own!

Is there anything else we already knew that you wanted to share with us?

To be fair to the Wigan guy I'd never quite realised things were so imbalanced

I mean, yeah, we all knew that our back line needs to be strengthened and we desperately need some more strike power. But we are the very worst team in the competition for tries coming from our backs. That's got to be addressed at some point.

On other hand, he's based the stats purely on the squad numbers. One of our numbers 1-7 (Dave Halley) hasn't even pulled on first team shirt yet this season! And because he's looked only at 1-7, it doesn't account for the likes of Royston, Ainscough and Raynor.

But, yeah. our back line is poor. But then we knew that didn't we?

How many chances have our backs bombed? From Orford getting injured and Beaver leaving all they've done is cart it up from first reciever or acting half.

Well it is a known thing that this year we've under utilized the wings. I put this down to none of the half backs we've had playing for us this year have a long passing game and if a winger wants to get involved in the game he needs to come in field to collect the ball.

For the avoidance of doubt, my reply was intended to be rueful rather than derisory. I could not find a "rueful" smiley, although the

one probably comes close!

I think the ball went wide twice in the Halifax game and we scored both times.

the winger caught a catchable pass out wide twice

Olivier Elima makes a welcome return to the Bulls squad to face Wigan in the Carnegie Challenge Cup 5th round at Odsal on Sunday. Elima has missed the last three games with a knee injury but has recovered quicker than was first envisaged. He is the only change to the nineteen on duty last week against Hull KR and he replaces John Bateman in the squad.

The Squad in full is: Ah Van, Briggs, Burgess, Crookes, Diskin, Donaldson, Elima, Hargreaves, Jeffries, Kopczak, Langley, L'Estrange, Lynch, Olbison, Platt, Raynor, Royston, Sibbit, Whitehead.

On Paper that is one of the strongest sides we can put out.

The more I think about Sunday and going over every conceivable scenario possible, I'm thinking that just maybe we could be about to see one of the great Challenge Cup shocks of all time.

Would a Bradford victory on Sunday eclipse Leigh beating Salford at Hilton Park in 2000 or Toulouse beating Widnes in 2005?

Im going for:-

Bulls 24 - 16 Wigan

First Tryscorer: Joel Tomkins

MOM: Ben Jeffries