Without ever really threatening the result I thought Swinton played well at times, had a bit of speed, and no little skill about the way they did things. On the downside they have a bit of the 'Leighs' about them and were very niggly with hands in the face at the tackle, back slapping etc. We were largely pretty disciplined in the face of it, which was good from our POV - though we really went in hard at the tackle to compensate.....
I wasn't over keen on the referee - he saw and penalised much of the niggly stuff but only by giving a penalty for slowing the tackle not for the hands in the face, and, despite giving two team warnings to Swinton, IIRC he didn't call out a single player for a serious talking to all match. There were plenty of penalties but he should have been harder on some of the individual perpetrators and we may have had fewer penalties, imo. He did keep a quick PTB though, which was a bonus.
It's hard to complain about the way the Bulls went about their business - a good, solid and despite the quick pitch, rugged performance with the result never in serious doubt. A good day at the office!
