I'd be tempted to have a bit of a shuffle around this week and give some of the fringe players a start...

1. Oscar Thomas
22. James Clare
3. Adrian Purtell
4. Kris Welham
2. Omari Caro
6. Lee Gaskell
13. Danny Addy
35. Rhys Lovegrove
9. Adam O’Brien
10. Adam Sidlow
15. Matty Blythe
23. Alex Mellor
14. Jay Pitts

30. Joe Lumb
20. Mitch Clark
11. Tom Olbison
28. Kurt Haggerty

Lumb on bench to give OB a breather.

Rest Mathers and Fergy for next week against Leigh.

By the look of him, Mathers needs exercise a lot more than he needs rest.

Mind you, I have actually been impressed with what he's done when he's played, he still looks very good for this league. Might turn out to have been a very canny signing, that.

I'd start Mathers as he clearly needs to get up to match speed, but I'd have Thomas on the bench and spell Mathers rather than shift him to the wing as it means Thomas gets some game time as the more game time the whole team gets the better as it is going forward

I would give Gaskell a day off and play Thomas on that plastic pitch. Putell can then switch to SO and move Thomas to FB when Mathers starts to drag his feet. We should be OK to deal with Swinton and still give one or two fringe players a run out otherwise they never get a game and all of a sudden it is the middle eights again. This must be the game to do it.

It's game three with Leigh the week after. I wouldn't be resting anyone. Let them rattle the rust out of their systems.

I have to agree with you, sir.

So Blythe in centre instead of Purtell?

I would like to see Thomas given a full run out and hopefully jimmy will spell Lumb... I won't hold my breathe for either though!

Yeah, I agree with that. I've criticised the non-rotations as much as anyone, but we've only played two games so, unless there are any bad knocks or strains, I'd go with pretty much the same again at this stage.

Plus, we really need to beat Leigh. It would make our season a whole lot easier if we did, and a whole lot harder if we didn't.

Agreed. Plus Leigh have a lot of injuries and their next games are London, us, Sheffield and fax. If we can beat them we'll be 2 wins clear and a little unrest might start to creep in. Big opportunity next week.

If we can get top and get the bottom team of SL at Odsal (at this stage looking like wakey again) that will be a big advantage than us going to Belle Vue again.

Next week isn't just another game. It could define our season IMO

It sounds like Oscar Thomas is definitely getting some game time today, it will be interesting to see where he plays, and if he'll start the match or just come off the bench.

Thomas is in at fullback. Mathers and Haggerty not used/rested.

Thomas
Caro
Welham
Purtell
Clare
Gaskell
Addy
Sidlow
AoB
Olbison
Mellor
Ferguson
Pitts

Lumb
Blythe
Clark
Lovegrove

Looking forward to seeing what these guys can do on what should be a firm, fast surface.

Bulls look to have gone with a mobile pack for this one. Speed over size as they'll be expecting a quick widnes pitch. Thomas to add a bit of speed and creativity from the back too. I agree with the tactics for once.

Well we don't need the big forward bashing that we needed last week as we're on the fake pitch at Widnes rather than the bog that was Whitehaven.
I think that we should go much better on the Widnes pitch as it's a good, flat surface which will allow our quick players to better utilise their speed.

Mitch Clark has what we missed last season - aggression.

Lovegrove looking good too.

30 penalties in the game. Wow!

At least he split them evenly between the teams...

Job done. Thought Swinton looked pretty decent with the ball and certainly dished it out in defence. Dont think we can learn too much from that game with a ridiculous 30+ pens.

Clark and Lovegrove did big minutes.

Decent win and points difference improved. Onto the big one next week!

Don't know about lovegrove but Clark did 50+ minutes. Sidlow finally got a decent break.

Thomas didn't sound to do much wrong so decent pressure on mathers. Only worry is Pitts injury. Good result.

Without ever really threatening the result I thought Swinton played well at times, had a bit of speed, and no little skill about the way they did things. On the downside they have a bit of the 'Leighs' about them and were very niggly with hands in the face at the tackle, back slapping etc. We were largely pretty disciplined in the face of it, which was good from our POV - though we really went in hard at the tackle to compensate.....

I wasn't over keen on the referee - he saw and penalised much of the niggly stuff but only by giving a penalty for slowing the tackle not for the hands in the face, and, despite giving two team warnings to Swinton, IIRC he didn't call out a single player for a serious talking to all match. There were plenty of penalties but he should have been harder on some of the individual perpetrators and we may have had fewer penalties, imo. He did keep a quick PTB though, which was a bonus.

It's hard to complain about the way the Bulls went about their business - a good, solid and despite the quick pitch, rugged performance with the result never in serious doubt. A good day at the office!

Sounds from here as if we got the job done without breaking too much of a sweat. Hobbo on BCB was hypercritical of the Bulls, saying that if we play like that we'll get spanked by Leigh next week. Is this true, or was it just a simple case of managing the game well and not putting hits in to preserve the players to be ready for next week?

The performance was more a case of never getting out of second gear because there wasn't a need to.

Hopefully, Pitts' injury isn't too bad and he was only taken off as a precaution.

The big test will be next week. Could be even more so, depending on how today's results go.

Didn't sound good on the radio - anyone heard owt?

Think Sidlow only did 30 mins.and O'brien did 60 too.

Disturbing to hear that

This whole 'not playing flat out because we don't need to' was part of the problem last season. Then when it comes to the Middle Eights we aren't at the level required

I'd rather see see us absolutely 'getting out of second gear' - and if that means handing out 70-0 spankings to the likes of Swinton, then so be it.