Bradford Bulls are the biggest crowd pullers of Super League V.

After finishing second to Leeds Rhinos in last season's attendance tables Bulls are soaring ahead of their rivals at the halfway stage in 2000 with an average home gate of 14,252 compared to 12,553 for the whole of last year's regular season.

The rise reflects a trend across Super League as a whole, with attendances up 22 per cent on last year. After 14 rounds the current average crowd of 7,645 is 1,367 higher than last year, although that figure is expected to dip during the peak holiday months of July and August.

Bulls coach Matthew Elliott said the Odsal following had a great influence on his troops' performance but was even more pleased by the club's travelling faithful, who have helped set ground records at six other Super League clubs.

"I think what's most impressive is how many fans we are taking to other clubs and all the records we are breaking outside of Odsal," he said.

"It's hard to say which I treasure most but I think our travelling support is excellent. It's really important for us, especially at a place like Castleford where the fans are right on top of you. So we will be hoping for another big show of support when we play there this week.

"Without a doubt, the atmosphere from the crowd definitely affects the players. At Odsal on Sunday there wasn't much noise, which was probably due to the lack of Giants fans and the fact that it wasn't the most bubbling game you have ever seen. So the players on that occasion couldn't feed off the atmosphere and had to create one themselves.

"But when you go to a stadium that's full of people and pumped up then it tends to get the adrenalin moving a little more so it's very important to our performance."

Elliott picked out the recent one-point victory over title rivals St Helens as one where the support from the terraces made a notable difference.

"We were only up by one point and we had to put in a few back-to-back defensive sets. So Bradford really needed help and the crowd really got behind us to pull us through," he said.

Another record crowd is expected to be set at The Jungle on Friday night as the Bulls army invades Castleford and fans are being advised to arrive early.

Bradford look certain to field a stronger side than the injury-ravaged line-up who faced Huddersfield-Sheffield Giants on Sunday with Brad Mackay certain to make a return to the first team.

Scott Naylor (ankle) and Justin Brooker (hand) also have a strong chance of making the team but Nathan McAvoy is still touch and go after picking up a knee injury against Wigan last week.

Bulls' home tie against Salford City Reds on June 25 has been brought forward to a 3pm kick-off to avoid a clash with the Euro 2000 quarter-finals.