Steve McNamara is determined his Bulls will not end up emotionally drained by the excitement of derby day.

His troops head to Leeds tomorrow night for the start of the gruelling Easter period – a sequence of three games in ten days that could prove crucial to their entire season.

Last year, they showed guts and determination to defeat the Rhinos 10-6 in a titanic battle at Grattan Stadium but the jubilation did not last long.

A narrow defeat at Wakefield on Easter Monday sapped energy and morale before the Bulls were finished off by a rampant Warrington the following Friday, humiliated 58-22 in front of their own fans.

This time, the emphasis is on backing up a big performance at Headingley in the forthcoming games against Crusaders and Catalans Dragons.

McNamara said: “The teams who are involved in the traditional big derbies – Leeds-Bradford, Hull-Hull KR and Wigan-Saints – have to back that up.

“Sometimes you have to take some of the emotion out of it. The Leeds game is worth two points but I know it’s worth a whole lot more to a whole lot of people.

“A lot of the Bradford-born players, players who’ve been here a long time and even the Australians understand what it means and there’s a lot of passion on display.

“But the reality is we’ve got to pick up two points, then another two points and another two points. It has to be kept in check.”

Leeds head into the Headingley match-up missing four key players, including England skipper Jamie Peacock, but their injury crisis has been alleviated by the return of Lee Smith.

The talented three-quarter has cut short his foray into rugby union after just five months, returning to his home-town club on a four-season deal after being granted a release by London Wasps.

He will be in contention to play alongside returning trio Kevin Sinfield, Brett Delaney and Kylie Leuluai but no matter what team they field, McNamara expects to feel the full force of the champions.

“You prepare for the best Leeds side and the best Leeds performance and we’ve got plenty of experience over the last few years what a lot of their threats are and what they’re good at,” he said.

“A lot of those key personalities are still there and that’s why they’ve been champions. They’ve built up a pretty strong and healthy squad that can cope with most things.

“Some of the personnel who have troubled us in the past are still there and if you look at their squad, one to 17, that’ll be facing us, it’s not a weak team at all.”