: Sun Jun 07, 2009 4:39 pm  

Adeybull wrote:

Proves we both went to the game then!

Indeed. You obviously type quicker though! Just listened to Radio Leeds and it seems McNamara agrees with our assessment. Not sure if that's a good thing or not!!

: Sun Jun 07, 2009 4:39 pm  

Bully_Boxer wrote:

Well I'm sure you've had plenty of experience of blooding young players into SL. Perhaps if we were riding high in a play off spot we could afford to take a few more risks. But the coach has a balancing act of making sure we get the result first of all, whilst giving the young guy his debut.

So why name him as a sub then if your not going to put him on unless your cruising. If that the case he could have gone with the tried and tested option of Platt then.

: Sun Jun 07, 2009 4:40 pm  

I enjoyed the game today, it was a good performance and great effort. As long as we can cut out a few of the silly penalties and work our defence a little, there's no reason why we can't kick on from this. Menzies was world-class again, Halley was awesome and his kick-returns were brilliant, Langley had his first good game in ages : breaking the line and looking for offloads and Nero looks to be back at his best. A good performance and am glad to see the effort shown by the lads.

Scruton had his best game in a Bulls shirt aswell.

: Sun Jun 07, 2009 4:44 pm  

redeverready wrote:

So why name him as a sub then if your not going to put him on unless your cruising. If that the case he could have gone with the tried and tested option of Platt then.

To reward his performances in the reserves? I personally don't see the benefit of having a player like Platt on the bench. He isn't versatile enough to be a standard interchange and to my mind is equally a waste of a bench spot. I would like to have seen a bit more time for the lad but I just don't think the game allowed it today.

He's got a taste of what it's all about and the Bulls got the result, I think you need to try pretty hard to criticise that.

: Sun Jun 07, 2009 4:45 pm  

Adeybull wrote:

A FEW strange calls??? That's an understatement! Maybe the best one was calling half time before the hooter cos Danny Brough (was it?) told him to??

Team was certainly up for it, I'd agree, but thank God Brough missed so many kicks. Still too many dumb penalties and mistakes though (quite apart from the wierd Halibut specials). We looked at times to be doing our best to find a way to chuck it away again, and Deacon was totally outclassed in the kicking in general play department, even if excellent at goal. Rinaldi made a big difference when he was on. Langley looked strong on attack for the first time in ages. Halley had a pretty good game, and Beaver was just class again. We'll have to play a lot better than that in the next few weeks, but quite a few encouraging signs yet again. As you indicate...can we now kick on from here?

Some good tries scored and a good old punch-up...much more enjoyable game than many at Odsal of late.

The guy is clueless at best, but Bradford played the better rugby and deserved to win.

Langley went very well against us.

[Bullseye]

: Sun Jun 07, 2009 4:49 pm  

Second half was much better than the first. We came out and meant business in the first half for about 10 minutes then were pretty awful but managed two good tries to Menzies to go in front just before half time.

Thought Rinaldi was much better at dummy half than Newton today. He was more disciplined and didn't seem to disappear up his own backside like Newton did.

Lynch got through a mountain of work as usual and Scruton looked enthusiastic and took some stopping. Menzies as usual was in the right place at the right time. Langley ran some good angles too for a change and Halley was steady at the back.

On the downside was our poor discipline, we gave Wakey far too many easy yards. A better side would have punished us. Deacon's kikcing out of the hand and defence was a bit suspect to say the least. Pls can we do a bit more practice on making sure we don't kick out on the full?

On the ref he was very entertaining but seemed to come up with some very odd calls. We certainly got the better of him in the second half luckily but we did give far too many penalties.

The bit of biff certainly livened things up on the terraces. More of the same please!

: Sun Jun 07, 2009 5:08 pm  

Block5Bull wrote:

I thought both Halley and Scruton had their best games for the Bulls. Sheriffe also.

eh i thought he was gash, at one point easier to pick ball up than drop it and he dropped it.. wonder if he was a buy one get one free..get worrincy and get sherriffe free.

: Sun Jun 07, 2009 5:14 pm  

A few thoughts of my own (apologies if this is repeating other people's, I haven't bothered to read them )

Defence. Sometimes excellent, other times god awful. It amazes me sometimes how they can defend the line so well one minute, and then leave a massive gap or miss an easy tackle the next.

Langley. Much much much better. I've been getting to the point where I didn't want him in the team anymore, but if he plays like that each week, I've no problem with him in there. He broke the line, he made yards, he actually passed the ball, including setting up both Menzies' tries. Really glad to see him play better.

Deacon. Still poor and I have no idea what's happened to him. While he's never been spectacular, he's always been dependable. He's not even that anymore and today he had another 'mare.

Rinaldi. Best game for us so far and showed why we should be at the very least keeping him until the end of the season. I'd like to see him moved to 7 when Godwin is back if Deacon hasn't got any better.

Nero. How much better is he this year? Far and away our best three-quarter this season.

If anyone could watch that match and think Halley isn't a better fullback than Platt, I'll happily call them biased.

Overall, just nice to get a win and not look like we've never played together. Some definite improvement and hopefully it will stay that way instead of the relapse that's happened after other wins.

: Sun Jun 07, 2009 5:24 pm  

DILLIGAF wrote:

A few thoughts of my own (apologies if this is repeating other people's, I haven't bothered to read them )

Defence. Sometimes excellent, other times god awful. It amazes me sometimes how they can defend the line so well one minute, and then leave a massive gap or miss an easy tackle the next.

Langley. Much much much better. I've been getting to the point where I didn't want him in the team anymore, but if he plays like that each week, I've no problem with him in there. He broke the line, he made yards, he actually passed the ball, including setting up both Menzies' tries. Really glad to see him play better.

Deacon. Still poor and I have no idea what's happened to him. While he's never been spectacular, he's always been dependable. He's not even that anymore and today he had another 'mare.

Rinaldi. Best game for us so far and showed why we should be at the very least keeping him until the end of the season. I'd like to see him moved to 7 when Godwin is back if Deacon hasn't got any better.

Nero. How much better is he this year? Far and away our best three-quarter this season.

If anyone could watch that match and think Halley isn't a better fullback than Platt, I'll happily call them biased.

Overall, just nice to get a win and not look like we've never played together. Some definite improvement and hopefully it will stay that way instead of the relapse that's happened after other wins.

Pretty good appraisal. I thought Scruton had his best game for us - very agressive in attack and defence. The biff got the crowd going too!

As I've said before I'm a one time fan of Newton but his linking with Deacon seems to be the biggest problem with our right Centre defence. Plus I think that game could have been won in the first half with a bit more application but at least we're heading in the right direction

Also, its a big game next so we should breeze that

: Sun Jun 07, 2009 5:24 pm  

DILLIGAF wrote:

Rinaldi. Best game for us so far and showed why we should be at the very least keeping him until the end of the season. I'd like to see him moved to 7 when Godwin is back if Deacon hasn't got any better.

I'd go along with that for the remainder of the year. But I'd hope we could secure a better solution for the longer term. He'd be a good squad player but we need to recruit some genuine class and to do this we may well have to replace him.

DILLIGAF wrote:

Nero. How much better is he this year? Far and away our best three-quarter this season.

Absolutely. After a slow start to his Bulls career he is showing the quality Rugby though we were all expecting from him.

DILLIGAF wrote:

If anyone could watch that match and think Halley isn't a better fullback than Platt, I'll happily call them biased.

Whilst I still have a few reservations about his defensive strength, I think all things considered he is a much safer and consistent player than Platty. Certainly worth a new 2 year deal to see if he can continue to improve, but will he stay?