I pretty sure there is not one Bulls fan on here who really believes we will beat Saints by 20. Not a chance. Saints are still Saints and it will be a tough game whoever plays.

If your new halfback partnership clicks then believe it: you are highly likely to beat us by 20.

Unless a miracle occurs and we suddenly turn back into Saints!

interesting to hear comments that Pryce isn't suited at Stand Off...

It proves that half backs need a proper understanding between them. Pryce without Long seems lost. That said, I always thought he was too big and too tall to be a SO anyway.

I don't think size is the issue, Pryce is only 6 cm taller than Trent Barrett, 7cm taller than Iestyn. He's 4kg lighter than Wally Lewis was and he's only 4kg more than Iestyn and Barrett. I just don't think he's creative enough, I think both of the Pryce's had the potential to be quality centres or even second rowers, but I think Stand-off would have been the third place i'd have put Pryce in his younger years.

Well, our injuries will be Gardner (up to six weeks) and Soliola (2 to 3 weeks). James Graham has been passed fit as his sternum injury was bruising. No other 'real' injuries registered (presumably 'just knocks').

We will have a total of three young players in our first team for you: Eastmond, Wheeler (on the wing) and Dean (centre). No other changes anticipated, unfortunately. I was hoping Pryce would be dropped ...

You'll still give us a drubbing. No doubt about it.

At one time I thought Leon would have made a cracking loose forward - he would need another 5-6kg of muscle (lots of gym work) but if he kept 95% of his pace with the extra bulk...

Ewwenorfolk - I think you've got Saints' line up pretty much spot on.

If your halfback pairing gel - with each other and the rest of the team - and they adapt to how we do things over here then I can see Bradford being more competitive this season than last. It all depends upon how long that process takes IMO. You had plenty of field position against Hudds but lacked the direction to make it count.

We lack direction, period. Pryce should be moved - to wing or centre or fullback (or out!) because Eastmond I think would make a much better stand off than Pryce and also I am just not convinced Kyle is an organiser so my thoughts are that someone else should play at 7. Either that or we follow the Whinos model and have an organising 13. But our problems run deeper than yours so even without your halfback pairing gelling this weekend, I can still see another drubbing coming for us.

Remember, we haven't scored more than 20 points in a match since June, win or lose.

That is worrying I suppose, although the cricket scores do die down when it gets nearer the play-offs.

I hope we do give you a drubbing , we just haven't got a brilliant record against Saints and even if you have underlying problems in the squad, i'd still be cautious over a Saints team who've just been beat at home.

June is near the playoffs? I suppose it's nearer than February anyway! Well ... you beat us at KR last season and since then everyone has beaten us who has previously had issues, bar Warrington. I mean, Hull KR even beat us at KR and they hadn't beaten us there in, what, 50 years? Whatever. Mr Potter is busy breaking all these great little records that used to have the fans all feeling pleased with themselves. We now walk around with tears dripping down our cheeks. Bless.

Anyway. Update on injury: Chris Dean is apparently injured from his match with Widnes (he's on one of those dual contract thingies) and out of action for a couple of weeks so now I have no idea who will take which spot. I can only guess that Wheeler will do the centre work while Lomax will cover for Gardner's wing. I'd certainly like that arrangement as they worked well together last year and it adds a bit of pace to one side of our backline. The other contains Meli, so just keep firing high balls at him and you should score a bucketful.

I hope that pace doesn't exploit us too much, although Pryce doesn't look to be playing with the fire in his belly to get the ball out to his centres, just run it in instead.

Is James Graham a cert to play though, because I'm sure there will be plenty of shoulders aimed at his bruising, as I don't think there'll be many Bulls players feeling sorry for him.

Who is this Pryce guy? Didn't know he played for us ...


Hell yeah. It took three visits from the physio during the match to get him off that pitch and in the end he was ordered off it. We could see he was in pain but unless he's dead, he doesn't go off without a fight.

I meant the pace from Wheeler and Lomax, and I meant that Pryce just looks like he's turning up for his pay packet.

Oh yeah, I know what you meant. I was just being whatever.

Wheeler and Lomax are good little players. How good remains to be seen. But I actually saw Lomax take a guy on the outside when he played on the wing last season - and he scored from it too. This came as Deep Shock to Saints fans on the terraces because it was 2006 when we last saw that happen!