TOULOUSE MATCH REPORT

Bradford Bulls saw their five-match unbeaten start to the 2025 season come to an end courtesy of a 36-4 defeat to Toulouse Olympique in the south of France last night.

Brian Noble made two changes to the side that beat Batley Bulldogs last weekend, with Jorge Taufua and Sam Hallas replacing Kieran Gill and the injured Ebon Scurr. 

In the face of 50mph winds, the Bulls created a few openings but couldn’t capitalise on the field position with a number of errors made in good ball.

After seeing an earlier score disallowed due to a forward pass, the home side would eventually break the deadlock through Mathieu Jussaume, who ran a nice line to score under the posts. 

Toulouse piled on the pressure and having forced a repeat set, a flowing move sent Benjamin Laguerre over for the first of three tries in the corner.

The Bulls were only two scores down at the interval and with the wind behind them in the second half, Noble’s charges would look to use the conditions to their advantage. 

But the home side adapted well and scored tries in quick succession to take the game away from the visitors. 

Laguerre collected a bounce pass from Ashall-Bott to dot down for his second before an audacious powerplay saw Paul Marcon score soon after. 

Minutes later, another slick move between hands sent Laguerre over on the right edge for his third and final try. 

There was a brief riposte from Bradford after a spell of pressure on the Toulouse line, where a well worked move sent Jayden Okunbor over in the corner. 

The home side regathered the ball from the restart and a couple of plays later, Ashall-Bott latched onto a neat reverse kick from Shorrocks to score. 

Substitute Baptiste Rodriguez then scooted over from dummy-half to cap an impressive evening’s work for Sylvain Houles’ side. 

BRADFORD BULLS: Tom Holmes, Jayden Okunbor, Waqa Blake, Guy Armitage, Jorge Taufua, James Meadows, Joe Keyes, Michael Lawrence, Mitch Souter, Franklin Pele, Zac Fulton, Matty Gee, James Donaldson. INTERCHANGES: Logan Bayliss, Ronan Michael, Sam Hallas, Jordan Lilley. 

TRIES: Okunbor