Here we go! Championship rugby starts in 7 days.

Discuss the game/squad/opposition/build up/predictions below.

Can't wait for this. Sounds like Leigh are selling plenty of tickets. Hopefully we'll be there in big numbers backing the team. I'll be there! COYB!

Think you'll bring 2000 and crowd should be 7000 or above, understand well over 4000 sold so far

I'd expect a pretty big Bulls following to be honest.

[url=http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/sport/sportbulls/11778548.New_Bradford_Bulls_recruit_aims_to_hit_ground_running/Sounds like Lauaki is fighting to break into the starting 17 for this game.[/url

Got tickets for this away one, looking forward to getting behind the team for our opening Championship match. Fixture planners probably couldn't have picked a tougher opener but hopefully Jimmy and his team will have us ready to meet the challenge.

It'll be interesting to see what Jimmy does re Lauaki, throwing him into the side without a pre season or a warm up match would seem a pretty risk move. But he is an experienced SL player who could provide a bit of impact from the bench in short spells.

You're right about that. He can't truly be match fit, though he certainly looked in decent shape on Thursday. Thing is though, with all due respect to those teams, we haven't brought him in for games against Whitehaven and Hunslet; his very imposing, physical presence is wanted for the big games - like next Sunday against Leigh.

He's generally a solid defender so I guess Jimmy will pick him, and as you say, he does provide a lot of impact from the bench.

Don't think we'll throw lauaki into mix for this game as part of regular 4 prop rotation. 4 that have played pre-season games have gone well and deserve their places. If we go with obrien as an 80 minute player then we could have lauaki on bench as a pure impact player to bring on for a short spell. Not sure what best way to use bench spot that 2nd hooker would have taken is TBH, but some form of impact player or gamechanger could be way to go.

If Lauaki does make the starting 17 I would expect nothing more than a 10/15 minute impact spell either side of half time.

I wouldn't play Lauaki yet. One week of training is not enough to get him up to scratch. Let's also not forget that he's not exactly a world class player, at this moment in time I'm still undecided on him as a signing.
I still can't get my head around the squad numbers tbh, they seem all over the place. I know Chev has come out and said he asked for 22, being related to his kid somehow. Why is Tahraoui 28? And why are our hookers 25 and 26?
Are we really planning on playing AoB for the full 80? I'm not sure I'm a fan of that strategy tbh.

Either way, we go into this game as underdogs for sure, a team with a ton of new faces not exactly sure of its best 17, up against a formidable side who have the luxury of an unsettled side and home advantage. Their friendly results will have given them plenty of confidence - what will our friendly results have done? Who knows, I am still of the opinion that a game against lower opposition would have been good for the side to post a healthy number of points and raise morale. Instead we go into the season opener on the back of two defeats.

My money will be on Leigh next weekend, I await to be pleasantly surprised by our performance.

As always, very perceptive DDDDDDwhom? Jimmy and Steve have said that Sidlow (and Clough) will do the major minutes, and Lauaki will do short very intense bursts as the wrecking ball. And the stats seem to show that that he can produce a phenomenal number of tackle busts a game if used this way. But as always, it is the coaches judgement prior to the game as to whether he is capable of performing such a role on the day.

I don't think winning a pre season friendly does a huge amount for confidence. In all honesty you probably learn more from losses than just steam rolling a part time team. The two hit outs against Cas and Leeds will hav done us good. Cas, we were dominating until the rolling subs started. Leeds, we had to learn how to cope with the pace of a top 4 super league side which we didn't do too badly considering we have a lot of new players. That helps a team much more than spanking Keighley by 50+ as our big guys run through them.

That wasn't our only friendly...we only beat Oldham 11-10 today, you will thrash us next week....Bradford Bulls are awesome.

Agree with that. Pre-season stuff is never about the result, it's all about how you played, how you use the opportunity to try things out, put player combination to the test and decide what works and what doesn't. You can't take the actual result of any game which has around 25 people per side, continuously shuffling on and off the field too seriously.

I think we fans have a part to play in this too...

I watched Hull V Giants yesterday - a perfect example of fan power - they totally dominated the atmosphere for the afternoon. They got on Danny Broughs back big style - and he had a shocker of a game, after that - well you have seen the score!

The Huddersfield lads must have thought they were playing away, their fans never even clapped a former hero who made the half time draw!

Anyway - the Leigh fans are very similar to Hull - very vocal.. So I hope we take a big and vocal following - cause we are going to need it



Haven't looked forward to watching the Bulls so much since 2005!

I'd go with 4 forwards on the bench. Pitts or Ferguson (assuming he's fit) can lock the scrum if Addy needs to go to dummy half to spell O'Brien.

It's going to be a brutal afternoon of old skool rugby played in February. Whoever, breaks the other behind the ruck area, has the firepower to go on and win the game. Give Beswick time on the front foot, he's a crafty player who'll find his runners.

Bulls by 1.

I agree with M@islebugs in that Addy can cover dummy half if O’Brien needs a breather. I don’t think Halafihi or Conroy are ready just yet and we looked much more organised with O’Brien on the field.

I’d still be tempted to pick Lauaki on the bench as he can bust a tackle and provide impact after the first 20mins. We’re going to need our most experienced front row on the field for the first 20mins as I expect Leigh to fly out of the blocks. Composure will be the key, we need to be patient, take our chances and not throw miracle passes like we did at Leeds.

Some positions pick themselves like Mullaney at fullback and the halfbacks. Same with the starting front row. I’m not sure what the state of our injuries are but I’d like to think that the likes of Uaisele, Baille, Addy and Ferguson will be back. Would like to see Fleming back too. I’d go with the following:

Mullaney
Uaisele
Purtell
Baille
Williams
Gaskell
Siejka
Sidlow
O’Brien
Clough
Pitts
Ferguson
Walker

Addy
Davies
Lauaki
Walshaw/Olbison

I notice that Rowley is in the League Express today and in his interview he’s really keen to talk us up as favourites. Not sure anyone seriously believes any of that. Leigh, at home with a settled side, having had a good pre season, gone almost unbeaten last year. Us with heaps of new players, many totally untested. Hmmmmm don’t think so.

If we do win it’ll be by no more than 2pts and I can easily see us getting turned over, especially if we let Leigh get a roll on. I think the match has come a bit early for us whereas it couldn’t come at a better time for Leigh. However it’s all such an unknown. I’m really looking forward to it. There’s a bunch of us going.

It is going to be a great game, first time in a long while where we can have a season that will hopefully bring some serious Competitive Rugby League. The Bulls have a terrific squad. Although some disagree, I also think this first game is a must win. When is Ferguson going to be fit? Off last season back trouble and then again a post a few weeks back same thing. I am going to miss the game as work has got in the way. Gutted

I’m sure Ferguson said in the T&A he was fully fit only a few weeks ago. He’s not been risked in any of the friendlies though. I hope he’s ok.

It’s a long season so I don’t think it’s a “must win” game. As has been said before the team finishing 2nd may actually get a better draw in the middle eight and someone also mentioned 2005 when we started off by losing away at Widnes but finished winning the GF. It’s how you finish that counts. That said it is important we give a good account of ourselves as the club is on the up and will want to maintain that momentum. Getting well beaten wouldn’t be good.

I think it’ll be close. It’ll be interesting to see how we handle it. Our game management has been pretty shocking over the past few years but with so many new players we will hopefully see a change in that.

I think it's too close to call to make either us or Leigh favourites. Both teams have things going for them and against them.

We still have some great players in our team, Gaskell, O'brien, Ferguson, Clough, Sidlow etc.

Positives for Leigh - Feel good factor, a real momentum in the town. Kept the majority of their squad and have a habit of winning after a superb season last year. Some quality players who don't seem to fear anything. They know each others game and trust each other.

Negatives - They have only just gone from being part time to full time. Last year they seemed to win at a canter, the challenge for them is how they react when things aren't all going their way. Can their main players who were great last year, step up when the pressure is really on? Scoring 4 tries when you're hammering Barrow, is different of coming up with the right play when it's 18-18 with 5 minutes left.

Positives for Bulls - Feel good factor starting to come back. Experienced back room staff. Most of squad being full time all their careers and have plenty of SL experience.

Negatives - Although we did well to keep as much of the squad from last year as we did, they were still plenty of changes and with only two pre-season friendlies, we may be out of sync. Some unknown players who may turn out to be great, or duds.

They won't be more than a try in it and it is whoever performs on the day will win IMHO.

Wouldn't say it is a must win, but i wouldn't say it is important to get off to a good start and keep the momentum going. Whoever wins on Sunday, i don't think will go the rest of year unbeaten anyway. Dewsbury winnign against a strong Broncos side shows what a tough season we're in for.

I can't wait and haven't been this excited for a season in a long time

In terms of the actual table, it's not a big game, really. We only need to finish in the top four and it'll be our results against the smaller clubs that ensure (or otherwise) that we do that.

However, in terms of the season and how it pans out, I'd say it is a big game. I don't suspect for one moment that any team will go unbeaten, but one club at least will dominate this league - and the nature of how they do this will pile the pressure onto any struggling SL clubs come the middle 8.

If we've all lost 5 or 6 games, the SL clubs will have the confidence to swat us all away, but if a team or two are really dominant, they'll be cacking it - especially if any of them have had a mid-season fire sale.

For all the great and good who are heading over to leigh (i live in atherton), there is parking at the LSV but it gets full quick, i dont beleive you are allowed to park on the Morrisons car park or the retail park at the juntion, and also the estate gets full and can be a bottleneck.

If you are taking the M62-M60-M61 and passing through atherton i would park in atherton and get the bus into Leigh or park along the 582 bus route [urlhttp://www.firstgroup.com/ukbus/greater_manchester/journey_planning/[/url

Or you make your way along the A580 from the M60 which pretty much goes right to the LSV, plenty or pubs in either leigh or atherton, which all serve food as far as i know, also there is a pub right next to the LSV which does nice food.

Thanks broady. I've heard conflicting reports of whether Morrison's allows parking. Maybe a Leyther could confirm?

LSV has free parking for about 800 cars AFAIK you can park on Parsonage retail park without any issues, not sure about Morrison's myself as I park on the estate if I go in the car.

Leigh Miners usually open their Car Park and town centre Car Parks are Free on Sundays and are only a 10 – 15 minute walk to LSV. Pennington Park car park is also opposite LSV but think that’s a pay.

Easiest way (unless you live in Atherton

) is M62/60 down the A580 past the Greyhound Island, turn right at the next lights Atherleigh Way A579 continue through the next lights and LSV is on your right at the next island, if you carry on through the retail Park is on your left at what use to be known as Kamikaze island now its got more lights on it than the illuminations, either way best to approach it with your eyes closed. Leigh Miners is on your right and the Town centre is also on your right a little further along.

Have a safe journey.

Cheers glow.

Now another important question. Where's the nearest pub selling a pint of decent real ale and can I get a decent pie in the ground?

Leythers don't like pies.



You can get a bowl of Lobby at LSV



Whistling Wren (Marston) is on LSV site, only ever been in once myself, when it first opened never the best time, but seems to have improved does 2-4- 1 on food. Leigh East is also on site, doesn’t do real ale but usually has some cheap food available, and as said before Leigh Miners similar just down the road. Plenty of pubs in the town centre, Spoons, White Lion, etc I like the George and Dragon myself but that could be as I'm getting older it’s a kid free zone, as I often remind my 24 yr old son – No Children allowed.

If you have kids then other than the rugby clubs of East and Miners then probably the Centurion is the best pub it doesn’t do real ale but usually puts free lobby on and has a beer garden with bouncy castle. It’s located just over Leigh Bridge as you walk from town centre towards LSV the locals are in the main friendly enough to ask, especially those in Red and White.