Head to Head

At Provident Stadium	Last 8 Meetings	Away from Home
LOST 10-36, 23/02/2013	WON 1 LOST 6 DRAW 1	LOST 30-18, 09/06/2013
WIN 12-8, 17/03/2012		LOST 54-0, 08/06/2012
DRAW14-14, 12/06/2011		LOST 28-16, 25/03/2011
LOST 6-38, 14/02/2010		LOST 60-12, 13/08/2010

Magic Weekend fixtures will display as either home or away

Stats over last 8 encounters

BULLS		St. Helens
70	TOTAL POINTS	238
12	TOTAL TRIES	43
11	TOTAL GOALS	33

In Bulls Eye this week, Head Coach Francis Cummins looks forward to the second Saturday game in a row at the Provident Stadium when St Helens are the visitors. 

 

FRANCIS CUMMINS

WHAT WAS THE MAIN PLUS YOU TOOK FROM THE CASTLEFORD GAME?

“Well we got the win. We showed some really good skill at the end, obviously they had lost a couple of players but I knew as the game was going on that we were looking stronger. Their forwards just couldn’t go with ours which was really pleasing. We looked really big and mobile and we knew that we’d taken a lot out of them in the first half. We could have been better in goodball and we seemed to lose a bit of direction at times meaning we were almost playing yardage just to get down there.

 

AFTER ROUND 3, HOW CLOSE ARE YOU TO WHERE YOU WANTED TO BE AT THIS STAGE?

If you had said I’d be sat here with two out of three wins I’d have been more than happy, because I could have been sat here with three losses. It was unknown really, I knew that we’d trained really hard but we’d not really played any games. We just need to get a few more games under our belt and avoid just floating along. I don’t want to just be a completion team, I want them to attack and I want them to offload.

 

YOU FACE ST HELENS NEXT AND THEIR FORM HAS BEEN A BIT IRREGULAR THUS FAR, HOW HAVE YOU PREPARED FOR THIS GAME?

Someone is going to have to cope with the backlash of Saints’ irregular form and we’ve got to make sure that it’s not us. We need to go at their weaknesses but most importantly, play to our strengths. If we improve but don’t get the result I can still be happy, that is the stage I am still currently at. Don’t get me wrong, I want the two points desperately but we just need to improve with the ball a bit more.

 

You can’t afford to be complacent when you face a team like Saints. There is a reason they are one of the top teams and one of those reasons is that they have class players. They’ve been in Grand Final after Grand Final and it tells me that they have got quality all over and they’ve got a model that works for them. They have a great coach in Nathan Brown and they will still be there or thereabouts. They will be hoping for a good result this weekend, as are we, but teams like that don’t stay in slumps for long. Two players that stand out for me are James Roby and Sia Soliola. Roby has a tremendous work rate and he is just unreal. I think that Soliola has stepped up a lot and he is there main go forward man and you’ve got to put some effort into stopping him. Then you have to think about Jonny Lomax, who can run the game off the back of these players, then you start talking about Jon Wilkin and Paul Wellens and you frighten yourself to death!

 

WHERE ARE YOU IN TERMS OF BODIES FOR THIS GAME?

We got a few bumps and bruises but a big boost for us is that Nick Scruton has been cleared to play. We lost Michael Platt to a knee injury, he got knocked out and then whilst he’s flying through the air his leg gets caught so that is unfortunate because he was in really good form. We have James Donaldson coming back from injury and he could feature. Jobe Murphy made his debut against Castleford and, although it wasn’t the best, I’m glad that he got the opportunity and he’ll be better for it.”

 

SQUAD NEWS

Bulls Coach Francis Cummins will name his side tomorrow, Thursday and will check on the fitness of Jamie Langley and Chev Walker.  Nick Scruton is free to play after escaping a ban at Tuesday’s Disciplinary meeting.

 

MILESTONES

CHEV WALKER needs 1 Try for a career total of 100.  He has scored 99 Tries for Leeds, Hull KR, Gt Britain, England and Bradford Bulls. 

 

JAMIE LANGLEY needs 2 points for a total of 150 for the Bulls.  He has scored 37 tries in 241 appearances for the club.