Head to Head

At Provident Stadium	Last 8 Meetings	Away from Home
LOST 22-42, 03/05/2013	WON 2 LOST 5 DRAW 1	DRAW 18-18, 28/03/2013
LOST 22-37, 27/05/2012		LOST 34-16, 20/07/2012
WIN 12-4, 06/04/2012		WIN 12-18, 24/06/2011
LOST 22-30, 21/04/2011
LOST 28-32, 13/02/2011

Magic Weekend fixtures will display as either home or away

Stats over last 8 encounters

BULLS		Leeds Rhinos
136	TOTAL POINTS	167
23	TOTAL TRIES	29
22	TOTAL GOALS	25

In this week’s Bulls Eye, Head Coach Francis Cummins looks ahead to Friday's big West Yorkshire Derby against Leeds Rhinos at the Provident Stadium.

 

FRANCIS CUMMINS

 

WHAT DID YOU TAKE FROM THE WARRINGTON GAME?

 

“Well the positives are that we created a lot of chances.  The negative side of that is that we didn’t take the right options and that has been an aspect of our play in recent games.  We are asking some questions but we need to be a bit more ruthless when we get field position and bide our time. At the moment we are trying to score off of every big play when we are in goodball.   It’s down to a lack of experience, little more patience and not chasing the game when there is no need.  We had a poor start but were back in the game at 10-4 and playing well and get field position but then we make an era off a scrum on play one in our own half and they end up scoring right on half time and that’s a big negative that we have to get out of our play.

 

We need to keep practicing what we do best and we showed at Warrington that when we do things right it works, because we scored a nice try.”

 

HOW DO YOU THINK LEEDS ARE TRAVELLING AT THE MOMENT?

 

“Well they had a great win at the weekend, didn’t they? Craven Park is never an easy place to go to and Hull KR have been playing well.  They have a side that can grind you down but Leeds coped very well with that and scored a lot of tries over the weekend. I know full well of the threats they have and that they can score points all over the park”

 

DOES THE DRAW AT EASTER MEAN ANYTHING GOING INTO THIS GAME?

 

“It gave us confidence at the time and we dominated field position in that game.  A lot of people talked only about the Ref rather than how well we played and out them under pressure.  There are aspects that I want to ask more of against Leeds and we will have to work just as hard if not harder than we did that night.

 

IS IT AN ADVANTAGE FOR YOU HAVING AN INSIGHT INTO HOW LEEDS PLAY?

 

“I possible know how certain individuals play at Leeds but that can be a negative because I know just how good they are!!  The makeup of the team is different to when I was there and how they play has changed and it could scare me to death!!

 

It’s a Derby game and we know what it can bring.  Over the years it has swung from Bradford to Leeds and back to Bradford and then Leeds again but the atmosphere has always been great, whether at Murrayfield, the Millennium or Old Trafford but the best atmosphere I ever played in was here in 1999 when the were over 24,000 in the ground and although Leeds lost that game, it was a special occasion and I hope we can go some way to creating that special atmosphere again on Friday.”

 

SQUAD NEWS

 

Bulls Coach Francis Cummins has named his squad for Friday’s game and welcomes back Matty Blythe who replaces Michael Platt in the only change from last week’s nineteen man squad.

 

The Squad is:  James Donaldson, Adam Sidlow, Brett Kearney, Manase Manuokafoa, Luke Gale, Elliot Kear, Nick Scruton, John Bateman, Heath L’Estrange, C, Adrian Purtell, Keith Lulia, Elliott Whitehead, Matt Diskin, C, Jarrod Sammut, Danny Addy, Tom Olbison, Chev Walker, Ben Evans, Matty Blythe.

 

MILESTONES

 

ELLIOT KEAR needs 4 points for a career total of 150.   He has scored 29 tries, kicked 15 goals for a points’ total of 146 in 76 games for the Bulls, Crusaders RL, Hunslet and Wales.

 

JAMIE LANGLEY needs 1 appearance to reach 250 for the Bulls.  He has made 190 starting appearances and 59 substitute appearances since making his debut at Wakefield in 2002.  He has scored 39 tries for a total of 156 points