Bulls 21 man squad. Tom Holmes returns with and Kieran Gill and James Donaldson missing through injury. Peposhi and Hurrell named in the squad as replacements.

Armitage
Bayliss-Brow
Blake
Fulton
Gee
Hallas
Holmes
Hooley
Hurrell
Keyes
Lawrence 
Lilley
MasonMeadows
Michael
Okunbor
Ott
Peposhi
Scurr
Souter
Waine

Hooley


Okunbor


Blake


Hurrell


Armitage


Meadows


Keyes


Bayliss-Brow

Souter


Lawrence 

Fulton

Gee

Hallas



Lilley

Michael

Scurr

Mason



Holmes - 18th man





Ott

Peposhi

Waine

What has happened with Liu, injured?


Thought he did ok in the centres when called upon, albeit perhaps lacked a bit of speed. Big game for Hurrell to try and slot into the side, I expect York to test that side out.


I noticed no cup hangover for KR, going to need a big performance to keep that winning streak going.

Abysmal. Where to start and where do we go from here. As soon as we come up against a quality team, our weaknesses are badly exposed. Okunbor can't catch a cold. Meadows is one of the most unintelligent halves we've had. If our player is off the pitch, don't ******* pass to them! So many average players not good enough when it comes to the crunch. We looked a rabble today. 


Team needs freshening up, and I don't mean getting more over the hill SL players on two week loans. Maybe give a young player a shot. 

Biggest concern for me is that in these tight games we all too often seem to lack composure and gift the opposition possession. 

Always felt like a mistake was likely and we would invite York onto our line and we did. 

We came into this fixture riding high on a 7-game winning streak, but once again found ourselves undone by a York side that continues to have our number. Despite moments where it looked like we could take control, the same frustrating patterns resurfaced: individual errors, a lack of composure when in control, and a tendency to gift York possession through careless decisions.



We earned good field position on multiple occasions but repeatedly let ourselves down with poor execution on final plays, a consistent achilles heel throughout the match. Simply put, if we have ambitions of challenging for a top-three finish, this performance shows we’re still some way off. The levels required just aren’t there at the moment, and that’s a concern. Discipline was another issue, with large parts of the game spent on the back foot due to avoidable penalties and poor decision-making. Some decisions from the referee were questionable but we need to be able to maintain our composure when things start to go against us.


However, the main bright spot was the return of Tom Holmes from long-term injury. His energy and creativity gave our attack a much-needed spark, and he was instrumental in setting up the second-half try for Armitage. I'm not sure why Souter didn't return but hopefully that's not another injury picked up. Konrad Hurrell went well and gained some good yardage. Hopefully he can improve and get some confidence back after finding himself shipped out from Saints.



In the end, it's another missed opportunity and a stark reminder that we need to improve — and fast — if we’re to be taken seriously in the race to be top of the Championship.

Brian Noble confirms Souter out with a shoulder injury.

We defeated ourselves big time again. Twice, we made errors from kick offs, one with a knock on the 1st tackle and the other when Michael caught the ball from meadows behind the dead ball line. These mistakes put us under so much pressure and as I said after we last played York, we have that soft underbelly in tight, high pressure games.

That game was there for the taking and to concede with 2 minutes to go on the first tackle was infuriating.

Its frustrating being a Bulls fan.

Putting a back on the bench is always odd, but when Souter went off, it was an easy reshuffle. Holmes looked good. 


As said above - errors. And lacking desperation in defence. 


And a little poor luck also. If Blake had still been on the pitch, I think Okunbor would have been much more likely to have gone man for man and had a good chance to defend that last try. But he made the call that Fulton was getting done for pace, so stepped in to cover. 


Anyway, another good game, York are the form team of the competition at the moment. 

For me next week it has to be Keyes and Holmes at half back, Hooley at full back and Lilley at hooker. That's if Hooley is fit and Souter is injured.

Another frustrating game.  One we should have won if we'd shown a bit more composure in the last 10mins.  We just made too many mistakes and invited them up the field when we needed to be composed.   Going for a drop goal or forcing a drop out was needed when we were up their end.  Instead we turned the ball over and then gave away a penalty.  Brainless.  


We're making far too many stupid mistakes, the most infuriating being the errors from kick offs, it's like the players switch off once we've scored. We need to be more mentally tough and stay switched on.  This was always going to be a close game so we need to be more composed.


In many ways our attacking game was just as disappointing.   We scored when we did something unorthodox or when we managed to put in a decent kick but these instances were all too rare.   Just passing the ball along the line or turning it inside isn't going to trouble any defence.  There's often a lack of runners or options for the ball carrier with players content to just watch.  This plays into opposition hands.  Some of the last tackle options were abysmal, where were the halfbacks?  I know Lilley got moved to hooker but I thought Keyes and Meadows offered very little, particularly for the first 50mins.


Hurrell got a bit better as the game went on but that was a low bar to clear.  The way he allowed a player to just run past him for York's first try was very poor.  I was surprised they didn't throw more at him considering how slow he looked.   It was good to have Holmes back, we really need his pace and it was his break that led to the try that put us in front after Scurr's offload.  


Batley on Friday and a chance to make amends (again).  Noble was bemoaning the lack of options to be able to make changes but IMO it's not just about the personnel but the way we play that needs to change.  

I think the chopping and changing of our spine was evident. Granted injuries played a part in that. York seem to be able to name the same side every week, whereas we lose our Hooker early in the game. But York looked like every player knew their role. We looked muddled and the tries we scored weren't well created. Meadows is 6, then at FB today, then back at 6. Lilley starts season at Hooker, then moves to 7, then back at Hooker today. 


Even Goal-kicking. We seem to give someone else a go everytime our nominated kicker has a few missed attempts. 


I don't know what the answer is. Meadows doesn't have the right IQ to be a top end HB to unlock top teams. Lilleys erratic. Holmes is a FB.