It's easy to go overboard after a first 40 minutes of the season like we've just witnessed but we need to remember Scruton, Langley, Diskin, L'estrange are all coming back from bad injury plagued seasons. Gale and Sammutt, Purtell, Kear have barely played together before, and we're mssing 5 or 6 guys you would've expected to play. So I don't think the situation is as hopelesss as some make out.

Nevertheless, considering both have had full pre-seasons Bryn Hargreaves and Ian Sibbit were pathetic. Despite little or no platform all of the backs made more impact when going into contact than these two.

Our pack is worryingly light.

Not a great revelation I know, but we're going to lose a lot in the collision this season

You conveniently forgot to mention that the Catalans were missing Leon Pryce plus their two first choice wingers plus Pelissier...

That is correct but the game was won early on in the forwards.

We really need to see more from Scruton and Hargreaves IMO, and Donaldson is just too small.

Hopefully Joseph gets a go at Cas along with Whitehead.

yeah,they a big bunch up front at Catalans - Fakir,Paea & Ferriol take some stopping !

how did Menzies play ?

It shows the RFL's bias when they permitted Wakey's brand new starting 13 to gel from round 1.

we missed mnm Elima and Whitehead much more than cats missed their wingers. I was surprised that Joseph wasnt given a go instead of Donaldson Hargreaves LF Langley 2nd row, to provide a bit more grunt to a light pack. So no change to my opinion, first half of season will be mixed, 2nd half much better. As Hood says, half way through the season is the time to judge Potter, not one half against a very stable team.

Yes. I am not sure why it is only us that needs ten games for the new players to gel, everyone else seems to manage it.

"Wakefield turned the game on its head during a spell of six successive penalties in their favour"

It's probably because their teams aren't full of rubbing rags. Wakefield have recruited well this year and will be more of a force than we will.

It's down to the coaching too. Mick Potter doesn't look like he could get angry with himself never mind anyone else. Rugby players are primitive beings, they need a regular can of whoop ass opening on them. Our squad is top of the league at smashing a plate of Nando's but sadly they're like a brood of headless hens on the field.

That must have been it.

To be fair, I thought we had recruited well too. But I was obviously wrong.

I think you have, relatively. On paper better than Wakey I reckon. Tim Smith looked the biz though.

On paper, yes. It's just a shame they can't make the transisiton to grass...



Boom, boom.

We don't know whether Wakey can yet either...

that is so far off the mark TBH

after being close to him most games in the stand at Gilbert Brutus as well as last season for the Bulls visit I have to say he is the most vociferous of coaches,critical of any slight misdemenour by his team - the air used to be permanantly blue when he was around during play.

he's a passionate coach who really lays into his team when they underperform...

I'll take your word for that but if he is vociferous it's having no effect as the same mistakes and poor discipline keep on coming.

I think it's time the players were treated to a Best of the Bulls 1997-2005 DVD in every training session.

I do like to stay positive and obviously it's just one game, but some of the excuses and comments creeping in already are pretty laughable. No excuses for some of the performances and tactical decisions yesterday.

our forwards didn't seem to run from deep at all. there was no momentum from the tackle and the play of the ball was still very slow. we managed once in the second half to get 2 or 3 quick PTB going and we gained about 40 meters from it.

we're much improved in the backs and were quite unlucky to go in at half time with nil.

I can only speak as I find but my personal feelings FWIW (not much !) are :

Mr Potter became disillusioned with the club when he realised the quality of player plus the lack of investment he had/has at his disposition - I assume he is hoping to get through this season and move on to bigger things either in the UK or probably down under.
I don't think he's 100% with the club and is really regretting not staying at Perpignan - I could see that when he came back to the Gilbert Brutus with the Saints team and chatting after the game he missed the south of france when he realised the support/reception he was given by the locals

the same for Olivier when he speaks you can tell where his heart is......

just a hunch like......

I bet Leon thought he had made a massive mistake when he came back to Bradford this weekend.

Did anyone seriously expect a win for the Bulls yesterday? I predicted Cats by 20 on their board and wasn't far off.

As has been said we were outgunned up front. That meant we had few attacking opportunities and we managed to make a mess of the few we had. We didn't get a repeat set until the 50th minute IIRC. We were always going to struggle against the likes of Paea, Fakir, Ferriol etc but losing the ball without putting in a decent attcking kick is unforgivable.

We did managed to salvage some semblence of respectablity in the second half but a lot of that was down to Catalans going off the boil then anything particularly good on our part. We seemed to fall into the familiar theme of brittle defence, ill discipline and that awful habit of making a mistake and following it up with a penalty.

The return of Elima is massively important given the lack of power from the likes of Scruton and Hargreaves. Sibbit did his best but isn't good enough. We were unlucky to lose Bateman. Langley had a nightmare and I thought Burgess was anonymous. Our hookers and halfbacks struggled with the lack of quick PTBs but that was down to the Cats having the dominant forwards.

Hopefully our weak pack isn't going to be our downfall this season, but I have my fears. Catalans looked very good and with Pryce in the side will be even better, I shudder to think how many they'd have won by with him in the side yesterday. As for Menzies, well I still can't believe we let him go, he was the best player we had in 2010 and is still better than any of our current backrowers.

that's a really sad endightment for the current Bulls,n'est pas ?

Can't argue with much of that, except the "Catalans off the boil" bit, but when the opposition is 20 ahead at halftime it's a difficult or impossible cliche to disprove. But we WERE a significant amount better in the second half. It could be because Catalans took their bat home but it didn't look like that to me, I do think Catalans were not as effective in the seocnd half, but a lot of that must surely, in fairness, be down to us. Of course, it was always too little, too late, but let's not be unfair in how much we take away from our team. There wasn't much to give, and being competitive in the second half is hardly major size wraps anyway. But I think we were.

It isn't rocket science but still true that losing Lynch, hard on the heels of the colossus that was Vagana, has left us with the softest pack in the league. This may improve when most of those available are fit, but as I said before, it was not lack of effort, ideas or organisation that was the major problem, it was our pack being eaten alive by the Catalans pack, and once that happens to any team then they are royally fooked, which we were. It is a major problem for Potter (who didn't want to sell Lynch of course) and we have to accept (since we are up to the salary cap) that we won't be seeing any more new faces in the pack save injury returnees, so let's hope against hope that our existing pack members can find a way to raise their collective game and give the team at least a chance.