Steve McNamara admits early errors cost the Bulls dear as they kicked off the new season with a disappointing 24-12 defeat at Huddersfield Giants.

After an encouraging opening spell, Bradford barely gave themselves a chance, dropped ball and needless mistakes allowing the hosts to open a 16-0 lead.

From that point on, McNamara’s side were always chasing the game and came up short despite enjoying plenty of second-half possession.

The Bulls boss said: “We’re bitterly disappointed. I feel we missed an opportunity.

“Huddersfield were very good in certain areas, particularly defensively, and we had to work very hard to score some points.

“We started the game brightly but then found ourselves 16-0 down. We did some things in the first half that, by our own admission, were unacceptable, in terms of the amount of possession we gave away.

“We were made to pay the price and were chasing the game after that. We were looking for a bright start but it wasn’t meant to be. We’ve got 26 more rounds of the competition to go and win.”

Much of the pre-game focus had been on Aussie superstar Matt Orford, making his competitive debut after an off-season move from Manly.

And despite the defeat, McNamara saw signs of what the 31-year-old scrum half will be able to bring to Bradford this season.

“Matt Orford sh owed some glimpses again, as he did at Hull KR in the trial game,” he said.

“He’ll be very influential for our team. Another week down the track and we’ll be a bit more polished.”

McNamara also took heart from the resilience of his players. After conceding three tries in 23 minutes, the Bulls did not give up and added a degree of respectability to the scoreline when they could easily have folded.

He said: “We did okay in certain areas. We could easily have opened up but we stuck with it and got ourselves back in the game.

“I felt we could have pushed on with the amount of possession we had in the second half but the amount of errors restricted the way we went about things.”