Difficult conditions to play rugby in (it was bad enough standing watching) and we didn't quite have our tactics right in the 1st half. Forcing our play a bit too much instead of being a little more patient but overall it was decent performance given the conditions. The speed of the ruck is something that we'll have to get use to it seems. Very slow at times and a lot of messing about allowed which would be penalised in SL.

Pleasing crowd of 4891, with only 30 or so brave dedicated souls from Haven. Hopefully we can push for a 5k average if we can perform well at home.

Comfortable win in poor conditions. Seemed to be that some of our fans think we should be scoring off every play at this level. It was never a game for expansive rugby, yet i heard numerous moaning about us no getting it out quick enough, and we need to spread it out, even when we were in our own 20.

If anything i thought we were too expansive in first half causing a lot of errors.

Sidlow's offloading killed them. Pitts had a great game, and surely Gaskell will be the best player in the league if he stays fit.

Haven weren't bad at all and could have scored some more points. Never looked like they were going to win though, or get near our line without getting a penalty or getting a Bulls error.

Fev next week will be a tough one. Hopefully drier conditions will suit us. Interesting to see how their pitch looks.

If we do push for 5K can I recommend that they get some change. At 2:45 the only cash turnstile at the rear of the stadium was nearly closed by the young girl manning it as she was about to leave to get some change. Nobody seemed to think that if the price was £22 then a lot of people would present £25 or £30 and expect change. So the man in front of me had the privilege of waiting in the queue for 15 mins only to be told he could not enter as he did not have the correct change.

£22 to stand on an open terrace in a freezing downpour to watch the mighty Whitehaven is ambitious.

Right. Except that most BULLS fans come to watch THE BULLS. Hard to grasp, I know.

Well I enjoyed yesterday but I do have a problem.

Our new seats give us a great view but behind us there are SIX moaners - yes SIX - and feed off one another too...

Yesterday they moaned for 70 of the 80 - here is a list of what is wrong;

Chev is bald
Chev is a blob
Chev cant tackle
Chev is useless
Clock doesn't work
New programme is stupid
Matty Blye is the invisible man
Harry Siejka is useless
Harry Siejka cant kick for toffee
Dale Ferguson is the invisible man
The pie van has gone
The new pie van is crap
Ryan Shaw can't catch
Ryan Shaw isn't a full back
Free hot drink is stupid

Its going to be a long season if every home game is like this!

A what?

Well thats what they called him - a blob


"Supporters" who do nothing but moan - weird!

Oh and our ball handling skills were crap too - never mind how cold it was..

Personally I found the free hot drink very very welcome!

There were some encouraging stuff yesterday, and some that leave a little nagging worry. But hopefully the latter will be sorted out with time.
Encouraging as always were Gaskell, O'Brien, Pitts and Sidlow. I thought Mullaney went well too, especially considering the eye injury. The fact he came back on later to play 7 for a bit tells me that he'll be ok and he'll be playing there if Siejka does cop a ban.
I'm less impressed with Tahraoui as some others are though, it seems to me that his defence is a little shaky if you don't run directly at him. But hopefully that's just the step up to full time needing some time to adjust, as he put in a fair amount of minutes yesterday. Siejka too continues to worry me as he made a lot of daft errors yesterday, and with the lack of real halfback competition, there's no-one banging on the door to replace him. But again, hopefully that will improve with time and a few Lowes b*llockings.

I notice in the T&A article this morning, it mentioned the Bulls are going to contest the two disciplinaries. Must say I'm quite surprised by that.

but when you get 'moaners' and you know you're stuck with it - oh dear!

Like others, I think the weather had much to do with the game - it's pretty difficult to play open expansive rugby in, near freezing, constant rain and sleet and on an obviously 'slick' surface like we had yesterday, so congratulations to both sides for putting on a good show. Whilst clearly outclassed, and after the first ten minutes never really looking like scoring, Whitehaven never gave up, so credit goes to them too.

My MOTM was Jay Pitts, I thought he was both non-stop and outstanding, along with Adam Sidlow in the pack and obviously Lee Gaskell for finishing moves off.

Yep - go with all that - never ceases to amaze me - behind scenes problems at Whitehaven but those lads on the pitch were a credit, never gave up for a minute and gave a lesson in positional kicking too!

Jay Pitts my MOTM too - the lad is a cracking player.

I would have put up a robust argument against the final point. The other points less so.

Thought the story of the game was dictated by the conditions. Didn't think Whitehaven looked anything like a side in terminal decline. All that mattered was the win but the attendance was very heartening. We should be good to go when the grounds firm up. Big test next week..........tin hats on ........players and fans.