The best championship game I've seen this season.4 tries each.
If we can keep up that standard we could win all our remaining games including Leigh . We have a chance to finish in second place. The defence is much improved . There were some individual errors but nobody performed badly. Many thought the Leigh pack would boss ours and they they did at times. But our forwards always seemed to come back at them and I had the impression that we gained more metres.
My take on the controversial incidents:
. Clark was offside
. Blythe's " try"was no try but I thought Leigh knocked on in the air, onto Williams , who also knocked on. So it should have been a Bulls scrum
. I thought the holding down was one of the most obvious professional fouls I've seen.
. Higson ( who had a blinder) dropped the ball deliberately to get a penalty.

You win some you lose some. To say we were robbed FA is rubbish. I thought the ref had a good game. It was by far his highest profile game and was a very fast paced game. I thought it did well overall. I did think Leigh should have had a man in the bin for a professional foul and the penalty at the end was wrong.but I thought he did well.

When I saw the line up I thought we were in for pasting. But credit to the players and coaching staff. We look a million times better, particularly in defence. We're hitting much harder and have some line speed. Leigh had plenty of ball on oir line but we defended resolutely and forced a lot of errors. A month a go Leigh would have scored 30 points in that half. Again we got caught out wide a few times, particularly Caro. But we actually numbered off correctly, it was just our wingers making wrong decisions.

We look a much improved team and looking forward to seeing how much more Rohan can improve us in the coming weeks.

Phew, that was close! Thought you'd nicked it with Addy's try, and I couldn't really have complained.

For my money, you looked a different team to the one we met earlier in the season and we will have to be at our best for the next game(s) against you. It's difficult to assess how they will pan out, as we both had key players missing yesterday. I was impressed with Oscar Thomas yesterday - did he play in the game at Odsal?

Meanwhile, there are plenty memories to savour, of a tight thrilling encounter. What's more, it was played in an exemplary spirit - which makes our 'encounter' with Swinton last week, all the more baffling to understand!

We enjoyed some excellent conversation, sat with Bulls' fans in 'P' Block

Very good game played out by to evenly matched teams.Ref was best ive seen this season and he let both teams play.Both sets of fans will have gripes over decisions,and the video ref needs get to specsavers asap.Its time both these clubs were given an even playing field to get into SL,not these stupid play offs

We were not robbed.
I thought our forwards matched them and our backs are as good as theirs. We just had no idea what to do other than shoot off from dummy half - Addey and O'Brien tries.
On the last tackle it was a kick to the corners.
Our centres had to come inside to get a touch.
I thought it was a good game and Leigh just pinched it at the end because they had two quality players who knew whay each other was doing. If Drinkwater had signed for us we would have won that game.
Overall, good game and day out but the same old problem reared its head for us and we all know what that is.
I am not sure we can get 2nd now.

Great game and very pleasing to see a marked improvement on recent displays. We lacked some direction (wonder how we can solve that?!) but defensively I thought we looked much better today. The penalty to march Leigh up the field was a garbage call from the ref but it was one of those decisions where the officials take a guess and it didn't go our way.

Nothing is won in these games, but we do need to start picking up those points to finish as high we can. 2nd looks a bit of a struggle but all we can do is get our performances to a similar intensity and with a bit more direction we should be in decent shape for the 8's. Let's hope this is the week when we get a scrum half signed up!

Have to agree with a previous poster. If we had had Josh Drinkwater in our side we would have won that game in a canter. Disappointed with the result, not downhearted. Rohan looks to be starting to have an effect. Regarding the team selection, apart from starting Addy ahead of O'Brien, he is having to play the hand he is dealt. One way or another, next year is going to look a lot different. If the rumours re Addy and Clark prove to be true, yesterday showed they will be a big loss. Thought both were class.

Thought it was a great game, tbh and wouldn't argue the result - I was expecting worse.

Thought the Clark try was Ok - the only angle on TV, from the back, was one which made him look further forward than he was, if you imagine the camera actually alongside, the perspective would have would shown him further back. The same sort of camera angle appeared to show one of the Leigh tries was from a 'forward', but again, taking the angle into account I'd say it was probably OK.

Thought we defended well in the main, but why we were messing about at the PTB with 3 minutes to go and we were two points up had Leigh pinned in their twenty is beyond me, Jesus wept - well he would if he followed the Bulls!

Disappointed to lose but we showed a lot of positive signs.

Imagine what Leigh would've done to us a month ago.

The need for an organiser who can link the backs and forwards was evident again. We seem to be able to get field position but not able to make it pay off enough.

Thought the pack did well even though we struggled at times letting Leigh make lots of yards. If we can get 4 of our best props on the field that will help.

How did Mathers go at scrum half?

Didn't look too out of place to be fair to him, moved the ball well, fast pair of hands, defended well and even backed up on the occasion.

Nobody went at scrum half, that's our big problem. We'll never get anywhere unless we solve it. People fill in as best they can, but that's it. OTOH to get the team we had to perform like it did against Leigh was a monumental credit to Smith's coaching ability. It was obvious that the players believed. You can't buy that, and it puts a whole different complexion on the remainder of the season.

You can complain about limited attacking ploys but given Smith has no 7, and then lost our best creative player, Gaskell, for the big game, he worked miracles to achieve us matching Leigh for tries.

And I know there is a big connection between confidence/belief and good defence, but it was remarkable how much of a turnaround there has been in such a short time in our defensive patterns. Both teams displayed some excellent and tenacious defence.

I had been dreading what Leigh would do to us for weeks, which was weird given the sort of players we have, but the way they had been playing ... Yet Smith had us back in some shape, looking like we can actually play the game.

Well we only just missed out on taking the points from this game despite the fact we we lacking any half backs.

If Smith can solve that problem, then we might just go that one step further at the end of this season than we did last.

I am surprised FA has not noticed the typo (or is it a brain fart rather than a typo as neither option make sense!) in the Bulls website article "Smith Proud of Bash Performance". Its either an empathic or an emphatic oversight by the Headmaster of RAB Grammar old Skool. On balance empathic aint his thaaang, so emphatic it is.

And Rohan should be, when you consider what he had to choose from. In the circumstances we were in, a change was needed, and Rohan is not just a perfunctory change of coach, he has got a big buy-in from the squad. What he could do with a fully fit and complete squad is a mouth watering prospect.

I was really impressed and proud of the team yesterday.

I thought the forwards actually performed better than Leigh. I think the total meters made during the game had the Bulls 200 meters ahead.

The only time I was dissapointed was when the Bulls were within 20m of the Leigh line. I never had any confidence that we could shift the ball well enough to get over the try line. With a recognised 6 & 7 in that team, we should be able to push on to a much higher level.

During the game, I couldn't help but feel that Leigh were not performing at the same level in which they played last year. I thought their game has dropped, and they were playing more at out level.

Personally, i'm full of enthusiasm for where the team goes from here. I have no doubt that we can make it into the top 4, but even on yesterdays showing, I still think both Leigh and Bradford are some way off the pace of Leeds, Huddersfield, Hull KR and Salford.

As mentioned by numerous posters, the current format of the game (promotion/relegation) means that any team in the championship is hugely handicapped in what they can offer to the middle 8's.

After one game, I suspect Smith will be that rare thing, like Peter Fox, someone that can make a team play much better than people would have suspected it could from its individual parts.

I agree with you there. We are way off last year's pace, in the way we were playing the game - although we were well and truly found out, using that 'style' in the Qualifiers. Ironically, our forwards are better than last year - the first 65 minutes at Odsal were typical of how they have performed. Yesterday, they didn't take anything out of your pack though, and your 'metres gained' stats prove what we believed to be the case - that you were making more ground than us. Our backs (who were so good last season) are struggling this time around. We are missing McNally, big time, despite having a good deputy in Lee Smith. Also without McNally and Brierley, our pace has gone. Half back has been a problem, firstly with Brierley's ill-timed departure, and then with Chase's 'will he play, won't he play' farce. We are definitely a better team with Ridyard in it, although Drinkwater made three huge contributions yesterday. He should improve, when he gets used to our plays. I also reckon Reynolds is a more rounded player than Brierley was.

If I were a Bradford fan, I would be very optimistic about the rest of the season. There was a lot more enthusiasm about your play yesterday and you were much better organised. If you do find a good organising half back, and get Gaskell and others back to fitness, I wouldn't be overly optimistic about our chances against you - providing you can maintain yesterday's levels. Mind you, we still have McNally, Tonga, (if he ever does play!) Ridyard, Moimoi, Dixon and Patterson to come back - plus maybe even Beswick and Barlow too - so perhaps we still have some improvement in us? We'll also have a much rested Hock, Acton and Higham to return after lengthy enforced absences, following this week's Disciplinary meeting!



We do need one Championship team to get through the Qualifiers this time!

With just one caveat - and that is, that it's [relatively easy to do that as the new broom and sustaining it, which is the key, is a little more difficult.

If it carries on though, I may find myself being enthused and not just turning up from habit! Smithy is beginning to look like the real deal though and that's all he [ican[/i do, this early in his reign.

If there's one thing I've learned over the years, caveats are useless. If there's another, so is damning with faint praise.

I should think most went to Blackpool with trepidation as to what would happen, especially once we saw the squad, and I for one am not going to make the mistake of dismissing that performance as "relatively easy" for him to have masterminded. I don't think it was, not at all.

Sustaining it is not the key, having that rare ability to raise the level of performance that much in the first place is the key. All of a sudden, we looked like a team that is coached, with a game plan.

come and go over time and the 'new' boss will become part and parcel of the squad's daily life, so keeping some consistency, even in the inevitable defeats, is definitely the essence.

Great start, and forward with confidence, imo.

Ok, ok, I just imagined that our defensive patterns and organisation were vastly improved, or that the system we played matched Leigh, despite our lack of halfbacks. Just trying to please the new boss. Nothing to see here, they'd have done the same for Dale Winton.

Only seen the highlights but think the one thing it does show is that so far this season the team has been performing well below its best and its capabilities. If Rohan can get the team enthused enough to bring their best game to the table, plus secure a reasonable half back we should at lest be able to be in contention once the play-offs arrive.

This. Very interesting reading Smith comments about his selections. I must admit when i saw the line up i thought they were baffling. But reading Smiths reasoning, and the performances that backed it up, fair play. Smith scouted Leigh the week before and he is a coach that will pick a particular team to win a particular game. If we need to go big, we'll go big. If we need a fast team, he'll choose a fast team. Whereas Lowes, i always felt tactically he just wasn't good enough. He had a list of who he thought were his best players then his favourites and went with them. The line up never really changed (hence our best player couldn't walk by time the middle 8s came) We relied too many times last season on our best players getting us out of poop and when it came to the middle8s, we were found out tactically. I don't think Lowes really studied the opposition and just seemed to hope our good players would play well ad rely on that getting us the wins..

Smiths comments last week after the Sheffield game were what gave me hope. Instead of Lowe's standard "we didn't do what we practiced" Smith said specifically what we were poop at. (Kicking game and defence on right hand side)

Weirdly i felt much happier after that agonising loss than i did after we pinched it after playing at home. We look to have some structure to us.

After watching the full game now on Bulls TV (forgot how naff Sky's commentary still is) A good a game as the Bulls have played for a while but with a proper playmaker and Goal kicker (Addy does not impress and pressure kicks do get to him)the Bulls probably would have won the game. Though I think Clare not committing to tackling Higham cost us the match.
Some good stuff but still need to defend better and also take a tackle without getting pushed over the sideline so often,(when the Bulls tried it was woeful, so something else to work on)
There has been marked step up in attitude and intensity since Smith took over and it's not just the usual impress the new Coach syndrome, I feel we should be a more confident going into the 8's even without finishing in the top 2, but getting a proper playmaker is a must, even Higham at his age showed what we were missing.

could have won this game if you had any half backs on the pitch IMO. No play options, last play option was poor also, so to still have been in a position to win the game says a lot IMO