BACK in full-time rugby league, Ross Peltier was a man with a plan last September.

The 24-year-old Keighley Cougars prop had just signed a two-year deal with Bradford Bulls and was looking to get himself fitter.

Out of the bigger picture since he was at Huddersfield Giants from the age of 18 to 21, the Bradford-born prop decided to put all his energies into preparing for the new Kingstone Press Championship season.

For Peltier, who has also played rugby union for Bradford & Bingley, going to Odsal seemed like a dream move.

Playing for a club that he supported when he was a kid – he was even a ball boy there – he must have thought all of the cards had landed in his favour.

Peltier, who has scored three tries in his six international appearances for Jamaica, even opted not to work in order to get himself fit for the start of pre-season with the Bulls.

He admitted: "I am so much fitter now than I was last season – but what I wasn't counting on was Bulls going into liquidation and the players not being paid, on top of me deciding not to be paid before that.

"I have done everything since leaving the Giants in terms of work. I have worked in advertising for the Telegraph & Argus (telesales), I have been a builders' apprentice, I have even made cardboard boxes.

"I was working as a spot welder in Keighley, which was convenient for Cougars in terms of working in the morning and being able to get to training in the evening.

"After signing for the Bulls, who were always my number one target in terms of where I would like to go, I decided to give myself some time off work to get myself fit.

"The Bulls going into liquidation meant that I didn't receive a pay cheque from September until after Christmas but I have managed to keep my head above water with money that I had previously saved.

"The RFL have also helped us out but I am hoping to get my first pay cheque from the Bulls at the end of the month."

However, being in adversity as a squad has had a benefit for the Bulls that might not otherwise have occurred.

Peltier, who was named man of the match for the Bulls against his former club in their weekend pre-season friendly, explained: "If anything, what we have gone through has made us that much tighter as a group of players.

"Although the average age of our squad is only about 20, you could see last Sunday at Huddersfield Giants that we are all fighting for each other. If any of the lads get into trouble, then we will defend them.

"We went into the match undercooked but the fact that we weren't thrashed, as some people thought we would be (they lost 28-10), has given us confidence and now we are looking to win at Keighley."

The Bulls play their second warm-up fixture against the Cougars in the Joe Phillips Memorial Trophy game on Sunday.

Peltier said: "We have met the new owners (Graham Lowe and Andrew Chalmers) and, unlike the past two regimes at Odsal, they are rugby people.

"We are just taking things a game at a time and we are not really thinking yet about the first league match at Hull KR on February 5."

Peltier admits it will be weird returning to Cougar Park on Sunday. He might not go into the wrong dressing room but confessed: "It will be a strange experience because I have only played one match for the Bulls and I still have a lot of friends down at Keighley and will be playing against them."

The Jamaican international made 37 appearances for the Cougars from 2013 to 2016, scoring ten tries, and said: "I only really had three years there but although we didn't get promotion, we at least won some silverware with the iPro Sport Cup.

"They have a new coach in Craig Lingard, who I don't really know, and like the Bulls have a lot of youngsters and are going through a rebuilding phase.

"Promotion is the aim for them but with Toronto Wolfpack coming into the division and the sides who came down (Workington Town and Whitehaven), it is going to be difficult."