I thought we played quite well agianst 14 men last night. The first 10 minutes we were awesome. We just need to stop trying to get the ball out of tackles in impossible positions. We've certainly improved since the Huddersfield game anyway. I thought it was a pretty even game, we had a try disallowed, Foster 1st and Wellens 1st tries shouldnt have been given, and Ah Van could of gone in for his 2nd if Sykes would have give him the ball at the end, but he tried an impossible inside pass with 3 defenders near him, his decision making at times his shocking. Ainscough as been an absoulute bargain for us, he's a crisp finisher, and he has been brilliant under the high ball and in defence. I just think were lacking a player who has that bit of class, can turn a game, and can make a break from nothing. I wonder if Saints will let us have Pryce now, Gaskell and Lomax looks a brilliant partnership, and Eastmond can play again now and they also have Gary Wheeler.

Nope!



Although if he's going to spend the whole season on the physio's bench then we may well change our minds!

The more I see people say this, the more I reckon I was watching a completely different game. Briggs was decent for the first thirty minute and complete gash for the remaining 50 minutes.

Class??? You and I have differing opinions of class then.

Briggs was GOOD in our first game against Leeds, however Class is like Robbie Paul who was class for the whole 80 and did magical things. Menzies is class, his awareness is second to none. Briggs is not class, he is a good player though.

Langley was immense for the first 20 mins before he was injured. He was like we had signed an amazing ball playing loose forward. His opening burst led to an accurate Herbert kick for Ainscough to collect for the first try - brilliant

It must the Bulls website giving the wrong subliminal message that "Hey Presto" wave a magic wand and everything will be o/k!

"The we want success and we want it now" isn't going to happen!

Looking at some of the comments, it seems we have got some T & A muppets migrating over to here with a bad case of nappy rash!

This Team is still very much a work in progress and against the the usually percieved top 4-5 sides will struggle, certainly in the first half of the season. I expect results to be a lot closer and a win more problable second half! the other sides around us we should be capable of winning against and more comfortably as the season progresses

There seem to be a lot of impatient people surfacing on here that like to have a whinge when we lose but say nowt when we win.

Apart from the Huddersfield game we've looked a better side than last year in every game we've played this season. We're playing better rugby and look like we're going to improve as the season goes on. We've a young side but also have 11 new players including new players at hooker, scrum half and stand off. That was always going to make it difficult to suddenly challenge the teams in the top 4 who've had settled sides for longer.

I always said we'd be doing well if we finished around 6th and I stand by that. We've had a hard start to the season playing 4 of the likely eventual top 5 in our first 7 games. We've done that despite injuries to both our new halfbacks and our best metre making forward.

Ok, we still have fundamental things to work on like discipline and ball control but these are bad habits picked up over the past few years with many of our players and will take time to eradicate. As has been said we're a work in progress and are lacking a bit of quality in places.

I know there are some "glass half empty" supporters out there but we appear to have more than most.

weve had a decent 30 against leeds

a good game against wakey

ok against poor cas on the day

The rest have been pants, and no better than last few yrs

Now that were in agreement lets look forward to next week

Can't agree with that at all. Last years team would have folded last night and shipped more points and not scored the second half tries.



We made Cas look bad with our performance in defense (although I'll admit losing Orr blunted their attack late on).



When did he get the knock on the knee though? I think the guy was playing through it for most of the second half. And even if he wasn't, near enough the whole team faded in the second half.

I agree to a point in that we've not seen enough of him to say how good he will be but equally not enough to write him off as being gash!

The trouble is, there's this weird idea that we were going to be world beaters from the off. At least from some quarters.

The "Excuse" that we're still a new team is still a valid reason why the team shows sparks of brilliance but turns in some dog performances. If you look, the only time this season we've put out the same team twice was last week against Cas and this week against Saints. Given the fact we're bedding in new players, a new coach and therefore new tactics, it's going to take time for everything to gel. If you look at the two kickings we've had this year, Wigan and Hudds, both of those teams are well drilled, well balanced and have had very little in the way of squad over haul which has been an Odsal trademark for the last 5 years.

There's a long way of the season to go yet and I think that the next 3 games for Bradford are winnable. I do think that Briggs needs to be brought into the side to partner Herbert as that frees Kearney to play his natural game at full back. I also think that Sykes, although he had a good game against Cas, needs dropping. His trouble is one of consistency. He can have a good game one week, but then he doesn't follow it up the following week. It seems his good games tend to be 1 in 3. I'm not wanting to join in with those who want to use him as a scapegoat as I do understand his usefulness to the squad as he provides cover from 1-7, can kick goals and has a kicking game.

If Langley is hurt, then we do have cover with Elima, Whitehead and Olbison and we've got Donaldson and Walker coming back from injury. Leave Royston as Ah Van's centre. Briggs in at Stand Off. Kearney to Full Back.

To fit Walker & Briggs in the team I would drop Sykes altogether and Royston to the bench. The makeup of the pack depends on Langley but with Royston on the bench, Olbison would start with Elima to LF

I'd be tempted to bring walker into second row, with elima moving to loose forward. If whitehead has a knock too then donaldson into loose. briggs into halves with sykes dropping out. otherwise keep same team.

Elima is a machine in defence and I thought he had a very good game last night. He isn't a loose forward in my opinion though. I've noticed over the last few games that the attack often seems to break down with Elima. He has a bit of an offload but he doesn't have the ball skills to put players into space.

Donaldson to loose then surely. Seeing as that's his position....

3 of those other games were against top 4 teams. Did you expect us to win those? We'll be doing well if we finish 6th this season. You're expecting too much too soon.

We're already looking better than the last 14 games of last year!

We've got plenty of options and with Quins, Hull and Salford next up some slightly easier games than we've had lately. After those we'll see how far we've come as it's those games we should be doing well in and winning. Wins versus the likes of Wigan, Warrington, Saints, Hudders and Leeds are a bonus because on paper we've got a poorer side.

Or Addy. Both have been starting for the U20s recently, and Donaldson was in the second row with Addy at Loose.

If Langley is injured right enough then I'd like to see Addy given some more game time, looked lively off the bench against Wakefield.



Yup, Walker in the second row is the way forward I reckon. Keeps Royston on the pitch for us and he looked good for the short period he was there against Crusaders, was it? If Whitehead has a knock then rest him, the younger players need looking after so they breakdown later in the season. Not sure who it was but I read something from one of them saying they were totally battered by the end of last year.

Whitehead was battered at the end of last year

How you can say the ref was biased towards Saints I don't know. He was the same for both sides. The blatent knock on by Bradford in the 2nd half on the halfway line in front of the North stand was unbelievable. I think you went on to score in that set of six. You played ok in patches - the rest of the time you seemed to drop off your game and didn't seem to have any game-plan as such. I think when you get some of your other players back on the pitch in their right positions you will be ok. You have had so many new-comers this year they will take a while to settle and I think you will see a vast improvement soon.

Saints were their for the taking last night and we were found wanting in both defence and attack.

I strikes me sometimes, likes Bullseye says, there are people who take almost a twisted pride in slating us when we lose. But when we win, these people never post. I find that bizarre.

Because he awarded you two tries that were quite clearly not tries? Even the most one eyed among you saw that.

But yes he missed lots of knock ons it is true. The Saints one, which went 5 or 6 metres forward was a particular beauty. That was in front of the North Stand too, did you see that one as well?

Did you have fun swearing at the linesman.

I did


I also had fun, and great pride in clapping the side off at the end

Should also be pointed out that we end the weekend still in the top 8. The 3 remaining fixtures involve teams who are already above us against teams who don't have a points total near enough to ours to affect our standing.