Steve McNamara hailed his young rookies for recovering their form in the Bulls' 28-20 success at Dewsbury.
Tries from replacement hooker George Flanagan (2), Richard Atkins, Mick Withers and Ben Feehan put them on the road to success during the friendly at Tetley's Stadium yesterday.
It came less than a week after the Bulls' youngsters were
handed a sobering lesson by Super League rivals Warrington Wolves.
Then the youngsters were caught short during their
opening pre-season fixture but they delivered some manly
performances to put Dewsbury to the sword yesterday, 19-year-old scrum half Matty Brooks being named man of the match.
"Last week was a real shock for some of the young kids," admitted McNamara.
"It left them a little bit stunned. It shouldn't have done as Warrington are a Super League side but I could tell by the way they trained this week that they were ready to go out there and put it right.
"The young players were outstanding and physically they were right up for it. We had some young men playing against some very experienced Dewsbury players who had a lot of Super League games under their belts.
"It was a different class to the players we were up against at Warrington but I think our players improved individually and they definitely felt better for that first run-out and it showed versus Dewsbury.
"Not only was there Matty Brooks but I thought Andy Smith was outstanding, Anthony Tonks and Matt Cook played great and everyone really contributed."
The Bulls head to Lanzarote for their pre-season training camp on Wednesday and some of those who featured yesterday will be on the flight. They are also likely to be featuring when Super League XI kicks off next month.
McNamara said: "Six or seven of these lads will be going to Lanzarote with us and have a really important part to play in our squad this year.
"There are some others who won't be going who will also have a big part to play.
"They are far from the finished articles but we like to think we have them on the right road."
The only downside was three tries conceded at the death but the game was already won by that point.
"Just the same as Warrington, we don't look at the scoreboard, we look at the performance and what, as coaching staff, we are looking for," added McNamara.
"We made a lot of changes in the final ten minutes and there were a couple of players from different clubs and different systems out there.
"That threw us a little bit but it gives us something to work on."
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