Ha ha, nice one, but we've not prepared for it enough

Bradford fans were great yesterday. Think the main difference was our team has been together longer and looked more match fit. Think we're going to be the top 2 by the end of the season. Gaskell, O'Brien and Sidlow looked good yesterday. As for the aggression by both teams I'm not biased or naive enough to think any of the players out there today are angels so enough with the finger pointing.

Yorkshire post: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/ru ... -1-7108456 "To cap a strange afternoon, complaints were made to the match commissioner after members of the Bradford staff were allegedly verbally abused by Leigh’s head of rugby Derek Beaumont, who was seen taunting some of the Bulls’ squad members in the main stand."

Yorkshire post: www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/sport/ru ... -1-7108456 "To cap a strange afternoon, complaints were made to the match commissioner after members of the Bradford staff were allegedly verbally abused by Leigh’s head of rugby Derek Beaumont, who was seen taunting some of the Bulls’ squad members in the main stand."

I started reading the thread, but when it descends into petty arguing, I tend to switch off. So I'll just post thoughts on the game.

Positives: Adam O'Brien, who was simply brilliant. Constant threat with the ball, superb defence (see him grab hold of Moimoi on his own, stop him in his tracks and refuse to let go?). Gaskell in the first half ripped Leigh apart. Adam Sidlow looked like a different player, and has perhaps found the perfect level for him. Put in a lot of minutes and was our best prop. The first half in general was a huge positive as they played some very very good stuff when they weren't getting distracted.

Negatives: Discipline, Discipline, Discipline. Most of the team were guilty at times of losing their cool when they should have stepped back from it. Seijka more than anyone with two utterly stupid sin bins that he only has himself to blame for. Ulugia came off the bench and all he did was miss a tackle and give away a stupid penalty with hardly any time left.

Yeah there were a couple of dodgy calls from the officials. Purtell's try should have been given no doubt, and the "high tackle" from Uaisele when he forced the Leigh player in goal in the second half made you wonder what the linesman was looking at. And yes, the referee should have controlled it better and not been fooled quite so easily. But you have to play what's there in front of you, and we failed to do that. Had the team not got involved in the rough house tactics, they wouldn't have thrown it away so badly. As Lowes and Walker pretty much said on Radio Leeds after the game.

If they cut out those stupid mistakes, there's plenty to take out of the game. Especially when you consider it's half a new team and these guys haven't played much together. They'll only get better.

I do worry a little that with no proper cover for the halves, we could have a situation where Siejka doesn't have to play well to get his spot next week, like other positions do. Hopefully he will improve with game time though and cut out the stupid stuff.


Leigh will go well this year though. A lot of teams would have thrown the towel in at half time, they upped their game and did what they needed to do to win. And players like Brierley and McNally were superb at times.

It was a great atmosphere and Leigh deserved the result.

If I'm honest, I didn't think the match was great, too bitty, too much stop and start and I thought we'd have have more fluent rugby than we did. I know the championship is "harder" and more 'old school' than we've been used to but I wasn't really expecting [iquite[/i so much niggle throughout the game and we really will have to learn not to react to it. For what it's worth though, although I don't think it changed the result, a more experienced referee really should have been used for this game. It was just allowed to boil over, and whilst I'm sure the kid will learn from the game, with stronger handling it could have been avoided.

I never expected to win this first match, so I'm not totally disappointed, though to throw to away an 18 -6 HT lead is pretty unforgivable and we should have maintained the intensity. We now know exactly how the game is going to be played though, so we've had our card marked. The task now is to get some players [match] fit and build up over this early season ready for the more important games down the line.

Such a shame Lowes can't be gracious in defeat. Lost all respect for him I'm afraid. He needs to stop socialising with Karl Harrison.

How's your respect for Derek Beaumont holding up?

Also to note, much respect to Jake Emmitt, who took taunts from the crowd in very good spirits and gave it back in a good natured way yesterday. Brierley and Hopkins may not have been quite so good natured, but Emmitt was a credit to himself and the club.

I don't condone it if Lowes was abusive in defeat but it sort of makes sense having a petulant moment. But abusive in victory? That's a bit weird.

The T and A are also reporting something similar in regards to the behaviour of Derek Beaumont during the game.