BULLieve
18th
February 2013
Welcome to another edition of
BULLieve. What can I say? This week I have formed a partnership with
superleaguefans.com. This is a fantastic opportunity to spread the word about
our wonderful club far and wide using social media websites and the internet in
general. So now you can contact me via twitter @BULLieve2013 or simply comment
on the news article on superleaguefans.com providing you sign up to the site.
This week the academy game was called
off due to the weather and preserving the pitch for Saturdays live clash with
the Castleford Tigers.
The bulls earlier this week launched
a brand new recruitment agency,
Bradford Bulls Recruitment has been
set up to provide permanent and temporary workers throughout industry both in
Bradford and the wider West Yorkshire area. This will generate yet more income
helping in the transformation of the OK Bulls. For more information please ring
01274 635479 or Email bbr@bradfordbulls.co.uk
Saturday came round with a vengeance
and boy did it not disappoint. In front of a crowd of over 7,000 and live on
sky sports the Bulls had their second victory at the Provident Stadium.
The match had everything from team
cautions to brutal crunching tackles and even 3 yellow cards.
From the kick off the match was
brutal and intense, within the first few minutes Castleford’s Warrington Wolves
loan player Gareth O’Brien was in a crunching tackle with the bulls Nick
Scruton and had to leave the field. The intensity only rose again with Jarrod
Sammut looking certain to open the scoring for the bulls after hacking the ball
forward and racing to get on the end of it only, to end up missing the
grounding and landing on his face. Thank god he has that huge beard to soften
the blow.
It was not long before the home side brought
home the first try, though, as Kearney’s high bomb was taken in by Elliot Kear.
Kear then produced a spectacular offload off the floor to play in Kearney for
the try after another consultation with the video ref. Foster slotted home the
kick to make it 6-0.
From then things got scrappy. The
bulls were penalised 4 times in a row from inform ref Steve Ganson. After the 4th
penalty, Castleford evened things up through Jamie Ellis who converted to make
it 6-6.
Things then went from bad to worse
when Danny Addy was sent to the sin bin.
Now down to 12 the bulls dug deep and
didn’t give in where other teams could have crumbled. The bulls earned a
relieving penalty which resulted in Adam Sidlow touching down over the
Castleford try line. Foster converted to make it Bulls 12 Castleford 6 at half
time.
After the restart, Castleford scored
from a great flowing move which saw Kirk Dixon finishing off a 70 metre move.
In a flowing four man move, Kearney
played in Matty Blythe down the right for the centre’s third score in three
matches. Foster then tagged on the difficult conversion to regain their six
point advantage. Michael Shenton’s high tackle on
Jarrod Sammut then saw Foster tag on another vital two to give the Bulls a two
score lead for the first time and some quick thinking from Matt Diskin then
looked to have got a crucial try. The video referee had other ideas and chalked
the score off after debutant Jobe Murphy was deemed to have interfered at the
play the ball.
The Castleford team were then put on
a caution and the penalty count risen. This resulted in Carney and Ellis being
yellow carded.
Now 13 on 11 it was inevitable for
further points to be scored. It was then a case of roles reversed soon after,
with Walker this time putting in Kearney to seal the win for the Bulls but even
at that last stage they were not finished and it was that man Kearney again put
the icing on the cake with his hat trick score in the final minutes. Foster
adding the goal to end both the scoring and a convincing Bulls performance.
Final score at the Provident Stadium, Bradford Bulls 38 – 12 Castleford Tigers.
The injuries from the game are Jamie
Langley has a groin strain but should be back in 2 to 3 weeks’ time and Chev
Walker has picked up a bicep injury which is to be assessed this week.
Meanwhile, Michael Platt who was at first thought to have only suffered
concussion against Hull FC now has medial collateral ligament injury to his
knee which will see him on the side-lines for up to 12 weeks. John Bateman is
on the road to recovery and should be back either next week or the week after
which, will bolster the squad and become even more competitive.
After the match Francis Cummins had this to
say, "We were a bit edgy when we get down there near the line. We're
trying to score a try all the time when if we ask a few questions, we'll get
there.
"We just need a little bit more
direction at times. I liked some of the stuff - we were skilful and made a
couple of good off-loads but our structure just went away from us at
times."
When asked about hat trick hero Brett
Kearney Cummins added, "He's a quality player - he's huge, He catches the
ball well and runs with it and defends everywhere."
One huge thing to come from the game
was, security in the ground. New stewards had been working on the day checking
for sharp objects in people’s bags. I personally don’t mind this but as long as
it is carried out in a professional manner. Cans of pop were taken amongst
seized items by arrogant stewards who are used to working within the football community.
One person asked why they were searching and the reply was “well we do this at
city” in a very arrogant voice. The security failed as, Castleford fans were
able to sneak a smoke grenade into the ground which, was let off towards the
end of the match. For those who feel the need please we are asking for you to
contact the club and complain. The club are aware but, more awareness will
result in security being sorted out properly. Odsal has never needed security
so I would love to know why they have done this this week. You get a very small
minority of fans from diff clubs trouble causing but usually its minor so I ask
this, did the club have a heads up before the match, resulting in stepped up
security?
I’m hoping this is a one off as, I
would not want fans from ALL clubs staying away from this incident.
Quick update on the 2013 away shirt,
so far we have a date of march 1st so here is hoping we can finally
get our hands on the away shirt.
Is the Provident Stadium becoming a
fortress once again? Yes we are only 3 games in but, 2 from 2 at home isn’t bad
considering we could have been extinct last season.
Up next we have the misfiring Saint
Helens at the Provident Stadium, Saturday 23rd February with a
14:00pm kick off. Let’s all get down and support the lads and keep us on the
right track. As the lads say we are a vital part in moral within the team and,
so far moral is very high. We look like a very well formed team and we haven’t
been like this for years despite have a small squad.
I would like to say a massive thank
you to the Bulls horizon group for their continued great work. They have
volunteers all around the ground who volunteer on match days to help out all
fans, i.e. finding your seat or pointing out toilets etc. to give you a more
pleasant experience.
Special mentions go out to Barry
Fawthrop, Tony Tudor, Claire Butterfield, Matthew Ward and Carol Coulshead for
their continued brilliant work especially welcoming the fans as, the away fans
really appreciated this.
You can find any of the volunteers by
looking out for the black high visibility tabards which have Bulls Family
written on the back. Don’t be scared to approach any of them as, they are only
too happy to help in any way they can. Once again a massive thank you.
Just tonight we have learnt that Nick
Scruton will appear before the disciplinary panel facing a grade B offence
committed in the match with Castleford Tigers. We are expecting Mr Scruton to
enter an early guilty plea.
Last but not least, this week it’s
the world club challenge. Leeds Rhino’s will take on the Melbourne Storm and
this game is live on sky sports.
Who will you support? Will club
rivalries make way for the allegiance of your country?
Good Luck to both teams competing on
Friday night.
Thank you for taking your time out to
read BULLieve your weekly Bradford Bulls article.
Until next week, keep safe and see
you all at the Provident Stadium.
Jay Leeming.
