ACADEMY REACTION | GLENN MORRISON

Bulls Academy head coach Glenn Morrison expressed pride but also disappointment as his side fell to a late and narrow 14-16 loss to Warrington Wolves at Bartercard Odsal Stadium on Thursday.

Despite leading for a significant portion of the game, Bulls were ultimately undone by a late try and successful conversion for Wire, but this didn’t stop Morrison from heaping praise onto the team.

Assessing the game, he said: “I’m gutted for the boys, they deserved something out of it. “We defended our try line for 70 odd minutes in an outstanding effort there, and the desire and their work as a team was outstanding. “We knew they were gonna be strong and we knew they were gonna come up the middle, but unfortunately our discipline made us do too much tackling.”

The key talking point from the game was just how much time Bulls spent backed up against and defending their own try line, something that whilst they managed it impressively for the majority of the game, ultimately became their undoing when it mattered most, though an inability to take early opportunities in the game was also a decisive factor.

On this, Morrison said: “We have to be better in the first half, in that we didn’t hand over the ball on our terms and we kicked the ball away about two or three times giving them seven tackle sets. “We needed to be smarter, and we said that were trying to do too many big plays rather than do the basics right, but we were in front at half time and I thought we’d played well enough to get a win.”

Expanding on the game’s deciding moment, he said: “We came up with an error, a freak ball on the floor and they got to it first to win the game, against us, but I’m still really proud.”

The game’s other big talking point that had a huge impact early on was the conditions, with persistent rain and wind battering the Odsal surface for most of the first half, making it difficult for either team to play to their best.

However, both teams soon adapted well to this difficulty, a point that Morrison acknowledged, praising both teams in the process.

On this, he said: “I knew they were gonna come up the middle and that’s how they play. “They were really tight and the conditions probably suited them.”

“We changed our game plan up to fit into the conditions and at half time we set about changing our angles and hitting against the grain of the defenders, which I thought we did really well and we got some joy out of it” he continued in regards to how he was able to get his team playing as well as they did despite these difficulties. 

The Academy’s next fixture sees them return to Bartercard Odsal Stadium to take on Hull KR in another early season fixture, but Morrison admitted that until this latest fixture’s recap is over, he won’t give much thought to the test against the Robins. 

On this, he said: “I’m not looking forward at the moment. “I’ll look at the tape and review this first and get this one put to bed before we start thinking about the next one.”