Bulls boss Steve McNamara has been pleased with the response of three players he axed against Wigan.

After four consecutive losses, the Odsal chief dropped a trio of regulars for Sunday’s match.

Winger Semi Tadulala, stand-off Ben Jeffries and prop Craig Kopczak were all omitted for the 20-14 defeat as the head coach lost patience with his misfiring squad.

But all were carrying slight injuries as well and McNamara believes the decision will pay dividends.

“All three have trained tremendously hard since they knew they weren’t going to be playing against Wigan,” he said.

“Certainly Semi will come back into contention for this week’s game against Celtic Crusaders.”

The Fijian wideman – with his future still undecided for 2010 – had notched ten tries in 19 games this season, second only behind Steve Menzies in the club’s scoring lists, and missed only one fixture.

But Tadulala had made some glaring mistakes in defeats versus Castleford and Hull KR and was replaced against Wigan by Michael Platt, who had impressed of late in the Reserve side.

McNamara admitted: “Semi wasn’t selected last week. Basically, particularly in the last couple of games, he’s been way down in energy by his own standards and he had come up with some uncharacteristic errors too.

“Semi’s had a couple of slight niggles as well and we didn’t see the point of aggravating those by playing him in the reserves.”

Kopczak, meanwhile, lost his ever-present record following some below-par displays, with Sam Burgess instead used as the Bulls’ third prop off the bench.

The England star delivered a real impact and McNamara said: “I’ve had a conversation with Koppy and he understands what more is required from him.”

Jeffries is another who had played all games this season and has been the side’s most creative force in Super League XIV.

But the Aussie endured a nightmare against Rovers and Paul Sykes was shifted to number six for the Wigan clash.

Jeffries, rumoured to be on his way to Celtic next season, also has an ankle problem which McNamara believes will rule him out of contention for the trip to Wales.

Two players who did benefit were teenage back-rowers Elliott Whitehead and James Donaldson, who came in and made the most of their chance versus Warriors.

The Academy products thrived and McNamara said: “I thought both were very good for us.

“We’ve been talking about them a while and they’ve already impressed me. But I think they impressed the public on Sunday and also their fellow players, who were very complementary about their performances.

“For a game of that magnitude, both Elliott and James applied themselves superbly.”