Two wins on the trot


Must say I started to worry in the second half and we made things much harder than they needed to be. But I was very happy to see (again) that steel in defence and pride in our line.
Well done lads and please keep it up.

Hope Semi not too badly hurt. He looked classy today.

Sky gave man of the match to Burgess. I though he played well, however i thought Jefferies was the best player on the pitch for us today. He has probably been our stand-out performer this season along with Menzies.

Warlord scored a try again at an opportune moment to curtail the Wakefield fightback and Sykes took his tries well.

Halley again dropped off a few tackles and i cant believe the Sherriffe knock-on!!

They seem to be playing with more confidence.

[url=http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/general/rugby-league/sykes-hattrick-sees-off-late-wildcats-scare-1678034.htmlSykes hat-trick sees off late Wildcats scare[/url



[url=http://www.superleague.co.uk/video.php?id=13920Sky post-game[/url

No one got much to say about this game then? Shocked by the Beaver double whammy that led to the Snitch try. But good to see WL turn creator for the final score.

It does seem strangely quiet. I've commented more elsewhere, but briefly I thought the Wakey forwards were no match for Bradford, & BJ & Sykes ripped Wakey's centre/wing partnership to shreds.
Memories are a bit hazy but I thought the second of the 3 VT decisions was harsh on Wakey. I felt for John Kear, who is just about my favourite RL person on the planet, a 100% dignified gentleman. I look forward to him coming home to Cas.

Would that be the obstruction to deny Brough?

I thought it was a well executed move and Newton was attracted to the dummy runner in Sculthorpe. However Sculthorpe then unnecessarily grabbed Newton momentarily, once he had done that the video ref had little option but to scrub it off in my opinion. It is perhaps doubtful that Newton would have got there to make the tackle without being held back, but it was still the correct call I think. Wakefield only have Sculthorpe to blame for that decision.

Spot on. It was unofortunate for them as it was a well worked move, but Mr Sculthorpe blew it

We showed some very good signs both in attack and defence.

Attack - we seemed to be able to score tries for fun at times on Sat, some of the handling and running was superb.

Defence - The first 20mins of the second half if much closer to where we need to be with regard to goal line defence. To defend all that was thrown at us (apart from an avoidable try and an unbelievable stroke of luck) was immense.

Not the complete performance yet, but well on the road to recovery I feel.

Looking at results and performances across the league, you get the feeling that anyone in the 8 come September will stand a real good chance of going all the way.

Well I have just watched the highlights again as the game was a bit of a blur!

All I can say is awesome, some of the best rugby I've seen Bulls play in a long time, everyone getting stuck in and all the players up for it, runners wanting the ball all over the place and some excellent, fast, precise passing which is something we've missed most of the season. Defense looked good for the most part and it looks like we're going in the right direction, lets just hope we can play like that and get results in the next two games.

A few points off the top of my head:

It was good to see Jeffries playing well as he's a real confidence player and that performance will of hopefully done him a lot of good.

Sykes had a stormer as well, pleased for him as he gets some stick.

Menzies was consistent as ever, top class, great in attack and he loves them crunching tackles.

Worrincy was making some good runs and looks almost unstoppable in full flight, more to come from that lad and think he's great as an impact sub.

Srutons effort to stop the wakefield try was fantastic, I've not been his greatest fan but he's starting to play well.

Burgess seems to be finding some form, he looked really up for it and made some of his trademark runs and put a few big hits on the Wakefield pack.

I could mention more as all the lads played well but thats what stood out for me, in a way its a shame we have a break until our next game, I know a rest is good but I would of loved to of gone straight into a game at the weekend on a high.

What he said.

Great day, great event and great show by the slowly improving Bulls.

The "obstruction", having watched it several times on vid, was a blatant one. Stevo is clearly blind, as he said Newton had 'picked the wrong man' - but this was rubbish, Newton was c;early watching the ball which [ihad already been passed[/i before the player made contact with Newton. It is clear on the replay that Newton would - to say the least - comfortably have got to the gap through which the player ran and I can't believe Kear or anyone is whinging about it, if indeed they are.

Anyway, it is certainly true that we've had lesser "obstructions" awarded against us so some you win, some you lose, but at [ithe very least[/i it was a call that the VR was perfectly entitled to make.

I too was a bit baffled by how every time a Wakey ball came loose it was a penalty, but the ref was on the spot and had a better view than any of us, so again they were calls he was entitled to make. It is worth contrasting those calls with some of the decisions NOT called as penalties on the Sunday, though.

It seems clear to me that there is such a grey area here, and the rewards of getting away with a ball steal, compared with the risks of getting caught, have led us to a situation where pretty much all players will dislodge the ball at every opportunity, they obviously see it as standard to get a hand on the abll at any tackle and try to pull it free, and this is pretty much tolerated by the officials. We copped for an unusually intolerant spell, for some weird reason, that's all, but if the RFL don't want ball stealing they need to have a close look at what is actually going on.

All in all MM was an outstanding event for rugby league, got us wall to wall on Sky and afaik almost universal media praise for those who reported on it, and positive feedback from those who attended it. A major Rugby League event, (of which there are very few) where RL takes over a major city for a weekend and takes over a major sports channel for two days. I can't see what there is not to be positive about.

And to ice the cake, those whingeing lumps Graham and Cunningham (both of whom did indeed play is if they were "not fussed"icon_wink.gif got roundly stuffed by the Wigan. Serves them right.

big bad bullish bulls back to bulldozing and bullying their way up the league.

No, I remember thinking they couldn't give that one. I'm sure there was one which was chalked off very quickly which I was surprised by. Or perhaps it was a combination of crap beer & MSG.

The offside from the chip through!? (start of second half?)

Crikey - don't remember that at all. Sounds a cracking move though.

Kear was upset about the chip through and offside call which was very marginal from the replay. One where if it goes against you you're unhappy and if it's for you you're relieved.

I thought the very first angle they showed was the best and he looked just in front of the kicker.

always the same with angles on the TV, some show onside, some offside and some are inconclusive. I'd call it marginally offside but would be unhappy if it was called against us.

There is no such thing as marginally offside your either on or off.

pedantic point taken

Are you sure you sure it was the Bulls playing?

TBH it's all a drunken haze - I even dreamed I met a strange family of Stepford Bulls fans proudly walking round in home made t-shirts with child-like scribble & doodles all over them proclaiming their love & support for half the teams in SL.

He looked pretty clearly offside I thought.

Poor old Kear. He said something like, 'you can make any camera angle look offside'. Well, maybe so if you're Stevo, but those of us with the not at all difficult ability to add perspective into a 2D image can work these things out very easily. (Not every case, of course, there are some where it can be very hard to tell - just this was not one of them!)

It was like the JJB 'knock on' at odsal, Stevo was ranting on about "that's gone backwards", when the ball was propelled directly in a line away from the camera. The camera was pointing about 20-30 degrees forward of halfway and so the ball going along the same line is exactlt the same amount forward.

Simples. But like meerkats and markets apparently loads of people have trouble with even the basics of perspective.

Class. Pure class