Providing the funds so you can engage a top-quality coach, bring former world-class players over for motivational events or subsidise the travel of the travelling army are a few examples that spring to mind compared with clubs lacking such a backer? And that's meant as no disrespect to you at all - you had your years of being the under-achievers, having to sell players to avoid going bust, so no-one can reasonably say its not your turn for a chance in the sun now?



Extremely good comparison, and with the same causes. If Bulls had the extra £0.2m (or whatever the exact amount is) so we could spend the full salary cap rather than be one of the lowest-spenders in the game, we'd probably be able to recruit or retain a few more of those "certain somethings". It didn't help either that, with our very lean squad, one of our most key "certain somethings" was sat in that stands today.

Two

It amounts to more than that though.

For example, some clubs require players to buy their own supplements, others don't.

Some clubs give merchandise to the players who want it for families, friends etc. others don't


There are many things like this that can influence a player. They don't bend the rules in the slightest, but they are certainly benefits a club may enjoy from having a wealthy backer.

As you well know, having better support can boost a team alot - being able to afford a state-of-the-art stadium and as much advertising to fill it as is needed can only help the team aswell.

shall we just all agree that silverwood is an absolute diabolical ref who doesnt deserve to be a ref and he totally spoilt the game for both teams today!

ive heard this from other sl supporters in other games, not just the bulls games but nothing is ever done about him and nothing ever will.

hope we dont have him much more this year.

I thought Ganson was the ref today TBH.

Silverwood is shocking, I hate every game I see him referee, he's spoils the lot. Senior was dead right about him. It's not the F*****g Silverwood show!

Not here to gloat but thought both sides had a try each that could have been chalked off. Bad call by Silverwood who should have given you 6 more tackles. Who knows what would have happened then. Both sides had one key player who could win it. Bulls had Orford who was ordinary today choosing a few wrong options. Wire had Monaghan who bossed the game. Why is it whoever loses blames the ref? The more you lose the more it is the refs fault. This year the refs are poor and as for the linesman well what the heck do they do? Unlucky Bradford and well done Wire who I still want to see playing us in the Final after they beat Saints in the semi

Also hope your young lads injury is not as bad as it looked on TV.He looks a great prospect

Im not blaming the ref pal. Its very rare I do. I was just speaking in general about Silverwood. I think he's terrible in most games.

i sometimes blame the ref a bit but today was taking it too far. doesnt anything ever get said to them when they make the massive mistakes in games which could say who wins.
i once asked cummings these questions and all he ever says is they are only human like the rest of us.
why on earth does he give silverwood these big games when he does this? and having him two weeks in a row at home cant be right.

we can save a bit of cash in sl by sackin the touch judges, what do they do? apart from show if the kicker converts the try they just run up n down the sidelines and keep fit. they never see forward passes and when things happen near the sidelines they never give anything!

If premier leagure refs screw up, they have to spend sometimes in the lower leagues to "improve" their performance. On todays performance alone Silverwood is going to be doing sunday leagure rugby for months to come. Ok, sometimes they miss the odd thing, but some of that stuff today was so blatant they saw it from the 757 leaving Leeds Bradford airport... (ganson even looked at the knock on 12 times and missed it!)

IMO we lost today primarily for the same reason we lost last week - no lack of effort, but we cannot now afford the strength in depth that clubs like Wire can. And a very very poor Bulls support turn-out, for maybe the one match of the season when it really mattered, does little to alleviate that.

I don't think on balance Silverwood - mistakes again for both sides - did us any net favours again, but we are well used to that by now. It was rather taking the pîss giving us him two weeks on the trot though. But to come so close against the current cup holders this week, and against the current SL champions for most of the game last week, is no mean achievement - even if, in the end, not achievement enough.

No, he didn't.

To be honest the lack of Bulls support is the saddest part about today. To be outnumbered at home is frankly embarrassing. We won't be spending the full cap anytime soon unless we can get back up to over 10k regularly. I just hope we can develop a few more Whitehead's because he has been an absolute joy to see develop so far this year.

I think Dilligaf made an excellent post earlier in the week when he said he enjoyed going to Odsal 'in a different way' or words similar. I enjoyed today's game and currently halfway through watching it again, if the players give 100% how can you be disappointed in them?

Talk about red-amber-and black tinted specs! Menzies knocked the ball on for Sheriffe's 'try'. Menzies knocked on for his 'try'. Just when Wire had the game wrapped up, Morley is thrown sideways in the tackle by ( not sure -Scruton??) and gets penalised for moving off the mark??

The facts are that Silverwood made vital mistakes for both sides. Wire had less posession and less field position but toughed it out to win. I used to hate it when we lost to the Bulls: accept that your turn has come to accept defeat, and try to be gracious about it.

Great post.

Like most fans at all clubs, there are differing views on how a game went, what the deciding factors were and how vociferously that may be portrayed on boards like this.

Those differing views sometimes get distorted in to what some may see as a majority viewpoint, IMHO, by the quantity of posts from the same posters

I think they are talking about bus tickets. So yes he did.

I thought we had a good game, with a couple stars out and ox half fit i thought it was a great team effort, shame about the person in the middle who doen`t know how to make decisions. Apart from that we pushed Wires to the limit and i think there in for a tough next round.

No honestly, he didn't. It was £4.

You not got on a bus recently.........?

Its 4 quid to get from Bradford to Leeds and back again!

Roses are red,violets are blue,
Wires 26,bulls 22,
I don't know why there's all this fuss,
over it only being 4 quid on the bus.

If I'd posted this yesterday I'd have whinged about Sheriffe being Championship class and Orford looking hopelessly unfit.

As it is, even with some Wire injuries we aren't in the same league as them so it was a cracking effort to run them so close. One day Silverwood's hapless performances will benefit us. Its only a matter of time when we score via an NFL pass as, for example, Leeds did last week. Hopefully we'll have the good grace to apologise to whichever team he shafts on that occasion.

I thought Menzies knocked on for our try. I don't agree that Morley was hurled anywhere. Sykes threw the lad by his head and the two knock ons from the kick was the stand-out moment of ineptitude. But Silverwood was rubbish all round really - pretty balanced in that respect for me.

In other news wouldn't you say a Leeds v Catalan semi is absolutely nailed on? I'm not one for conspiracy theories but if that isn't pulled out of the bag I'd be suprised.

I think people often forget the good stuff that Sheriffe does for the side. Ok the knock on was poor and perhaps a little typical of Rikki who is prone to the fumble when you least expect it. Perhaps it's a concentration issue because we have seen him take some excellent high balls in a Bulls shirt. Let's not forget the excellent finish he produced for his try yesterday, that try needed scoring and I doubt Reardon would have finished it to be honest. We need a winger for next year, but personally I feel the left side needs more urgent attention. I doubt we'll be able to recruit TWO quality wingers in the off season. He's improved gradually whilst at the Bulls and I think he has earned a new deal. He ain't a TV or Lesley but with no quota spots available, where will we recruit significantly better from?

Well like any average player he's going to give you plenty of knock ons and the odd nice try. I don't think with our budget and quota situation we can do any better either. But that's not to say that he's anything other than a lower level superleague player (at best). But then, we are a lower level superleague club. The question is, would the Bulls in their pomp go anywhere near Worrincy and Sheriffe? The answer is of course not; they are as good as we can afford.

Top players have mistakes in their games also!!

For what its worth, my memories of the game will be (1) result probably right.(2) Silverwood poor, bordering on dishonest! (3) Touch judges? why do we bother having them.(4) Bulls embarrasing "stay away fans" do not deserve any better, Wires supporters, apart from a few "thick louts" showed us up & deserve another trip to Wembley, Good luck to them in the next round.(5) Those true Bull supporters who turned up on the day and everyone of the players who gave everything should all be proud of their efforts.