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.

While I agree with the sentiment, looking ahead to Friday night against Leigh, I'd much rather the team did what was needed against Swinton to get a win and were fit and ready for Leigh than go 50 to the dozen against Swinton and risk the Leigh result. A win against Leigh at this stage is, IMO, of greater psychological advantage than handing out a complete drubbing to a newly promoted side.

I'd rather they prepared for game against Leigh on Sunday afternoon tbh

I could have sworn the game had been moved. Ah well, that gives me Friday night free.

London beating Leigh at half time

Would be even further ahead if they could kick goals

Leigh ahead now - was fun while it lasted.

Well, Leigh winning is actually a better result for us as we're now 2 points clear at the top of the table.

True - I'm no expert but I think Leigh will be threatening us more than anyone else in the long run!

Leigh went flat out all last season handing out spankings in the championship. They finished bottom in the 8.

I know what you mean with regards to last year. But last year we seemed to build a lead then put the cue on the rack and allow the team to get back in it. I don't think that's been the case this year. I think we've done a professional job in all 3. Whereas last year in a lot of games I felt we were poor.

I thought we played well enough. We certainly werent lazy or a case of us thinking "we've already won this lets just go through the motions" They will be some sore bodies this morning. I think it was just a case of us having more in us if required.

Part of the problem last night was maybe that we tried too hard to put a big score on Swinton and trying to score off every play rather than building pressure.

Fair enough, you were there and I wasn't

So long as we've learned from last year, then all is well