24-0 to the Bulls at half time

Sounds like a good game.

30-18 to Bulls FT they pulled 3 trys back in the last 15 minutes or so. Good first outing in my opinion.

The last 10 minutes were a disappointment in terms of not giving a full 80 minute performance (which is something Bradford have been guilty of for a long time) but there were a lot more positives than negatives from that run out.

If the team can build on this performance through the pre-season into the start of the season proper then I think we're in for a good year at Odsal.


And yes, I know what I've just said is analogous to saying "This'll be the best Christmas Walford's ever had"

What an unexpectedly enjoyable afternoon!

Teh bulls looked way ahead of Hull, and really dominated the game almost from start to finish, keeping Hull pinned inside their half and invariably Hull were having to start from inside their own 10. The defence in particular looked extremely organised and solid, but we did put together some great stuff on attack and all in all played to a much higher level than you might expect from a friendly.

Hull deserved about 6 for effort, but were very undercooked and we dominated them. The ref or a linesman spoiled what would have been the try of the game for a brilliant pass by Sammutt which was criminally called forward.

Hard to judge the attendance as only the stand was open, it holds around 5000 and I reckon it was bout half full. Nice to be back, and not bad weather either.

How can anyone expect Hull to try with the ridiculous new league structure? It's a joke & a disgrace.

Is there any news on any injuries? Scruton went off after 5 minutes and never returned.

Decent hit out and for a friendly the quality and continuity of rugby was pretty good. I was impressed with our scrambling defence and I lost count how many times we held Hull up over our line.

Franny will be pretty pleased with that first hit out I would have thought.

Also thoughts are with the spectator carried out on a stretcher, hopefully it was precaution rather than anything too serious.

You are right Tigertot. Nobody is going to try this year because of the new system so that means the Bulls will finish top and win every trophy going. What a plonker!

Think stand holds 6k. Don't know what it was like in middle but round us their were very few empty seats. I'd have guessed 4.5k plus for attendance. Expect club to announce a much lower figure for obvious reasons.

Very pleased with performance last five minutes apart when we put cue back on rack. Defense looked solid and some good moves in attack. Think we got a lot more positives out of that game than hull who looked generally disorganised.

Frustrating that substitutions weren't announced, but overall a very enjoyable afternoon.
Carvell is a beast, by far and away the best prop on the pitch, making yards for fun and offloading at will.
Gale, Sammutt and Gaskell all looked a threat with the ball. Donaldson was very impressive, solid defense and also got some clever offloads away. Addy and Olbison looked comfortable at 2nd row, again making great yards with ball in hand.
Hell, even Purtell went well, solid in defense and backed up well for his try. The little flick passes between him and Foster during the 50 yard break right on half time were great to watch.

Only concern was Scrutes going off, but he looked ok at full time. Hopefully nothing serious.

Hull, in contrast, looked utter garbage. Scoring only in the last 4 minutes when 80% of our side were academy players. Oh dear.

Thought we did very well considering it was out first game. I thought Gale prompted well and his kicking was a major plus. Olbison and Donaldson had good games, it was pleasing to see Olbison take so much tackling and Donaldson seems to have developed an offload.

We seemed to lose cohesion in the second half when we mainly had the kids on but that's to be expected.

Very positive performance. Gale looked a different player from last year. Carvell is a beast who once the likes of Sammut learn to follow him they will get many tries. Very impressed with Gaskell. Why weren't the subs announced? Who was wearing the 20 shirt? He looked very promising

Re the spectator, we were at the back of the stand and could overhear the St Johns Ambulance radio conversations which were reporting that the gentleman had suffered a stroke, so thoughts are with him and his family.

Good to hear Gale had a good game. Maybe the competition with Gaskell and Sammut will make him realise his position is under threat. Hopefully he will be more consistent this year.

The 20 was Adam Brook, our half from the under 19s. At first I assumed he was one of the Wire kids on loan, but was pleased to find out that he's one of our own.
He made a great break in the 2nd half and showed some good pace. Very small though, but certainly one to keep an eye on.

Good afternoon out that, its so good to be able to talk out rugby rather than money or structures for a change.

I agree with what people have said about it being a good hit out, I was especially pleased with some of the effort and desire shown to defend the line. There were a few times when it wouldn't have been a surprise to see Hull go over at the end of another back to back set, but we showed a commendable desire to defend the goal line.

Gale, gaskell, carvell, kear and henry stood out for me with excellent performances. In the second half our bench that got on looked a lot smaller than theirs and they capitalised at the end, But the scoreline doesn't really matter either way - what I took from the afternoon was that if we can keep that 1st team together we have a very good chance of not ending in the bottom 2 like many have predicted, we're not going to need an extension to the trophy cabinet anytime soon, but we have the basis of a useful side that could surprise a few.

And Odsal is still bloody cold, when the sun dipped below the stand opposite the temp dropped ridiculously!

Not easy to guess the crowd when you are all in the same side, but I would think several thousand. more importantly the team served up some good rugby so hopefully word will get around that we have a team who could well surprise some people this year and be more than competitive - excellent defemnsive work in the 1st half - and who knows why Sammut's pass in the move near the end was called forward.

you did notice hull had at least 9 or 10 first choice players not playing didnt you!?

after 20-30 minutes our main players were substituted for fringe players, our number 4 along with numbers 12 and 17 were drafted in from the u19s, we had one fit winger in lineham who we lost due to a bulls player sliding in with his knees as he scored a try that was wrongly chalked off!

as for the bulls, you looked good and defended excellent, holding hull players over the line atleast 4 times and another two cut out passes that were palmed into touch or knocked forward to stop certain tries, you have a settled 6 and 7 which helped a lot! yet saying that you only looked like scoring twice in the second half, one that you did straight from the kick off!

as for the sammut pass, if it wasnt forward it would have been a great try, but i was corrrectly called forward

Yes, well aware who you were missing. Just commenting on the team you put out. Don't worry we had first team players missing too and played 75 minutes of the game with only 3 props.
Lineham's try was chalked off for a forward pass, and it was the correct decision. Sammut's pass was also forward and was correctly ruled as such.

Hull will be fine next season once their overseas players bed in. It's just that today, you weren't very good.

Thought the first half was quite impressive for first run out for a few month.Very impressed with defence.When all main players were on I thought we looked good,as more changes were made in the second half the game changed a bit but that's only expected.Sammut looked very lively and I thought Gale played well,seemed that but quicker and wanted to go forward more with ball in hand.Carvell knows how to offload,Sammut will have a field day following him this season,as long as he doesn't follow him to another club.No more financial dramas and good luck with injuries and I think we will go well

Just to give us a sense of perspective who was actually missing from hulls strongest 17?. We were missing Kearney, diskin, ferguson and Blythe who would be in our starting 13. Obvious misses for hull were rankin, talanou, houghton and Biggs. Who else was missing?

Yeamo,Tuson,mcdonnell,watts,heremia,few others.

Tala out only arrived today...Biggs won't be 1st team and Rankin came on as sub and scored.we had McDonnell,Yeaman,Watts,Houghton,Heremia,Tuson,Whiting all missing who are 1st team players and will improve us......we may have been garbage as 1fan said we was but that's the point of friendliest,to get it out of the system and ahit up,besides...no points on offer and you don't win now for friendlys