The simple motto ‘rest is best’ will help the Bulls survive a potentially traumatic Easter period.

Old school rules suggest the harder players work, the better they’ll perform but Geoff Evans instead links results with recuperation.

The Bulls’ head of physical performance insists a carefully-managed workload is key if they are to survive a gruelling sequence of three games in ten days that kicked off with Thursday’s 20-20 draw at Leeds.

It can take the body days to properly recover from the stresses and strains of a rugby league match – especially after a high-intensity derby slugfest – but Bradford do not have that luxury.

Crusaders visit Grattan Stadium on Monday, before Steve McNamara’s men travel to France to face Catalans the following Saturday.

Evans said: “Basically we don’t do much activity over this period, it’s mainly recovery, so we use activities like massage and swimming.

“We just encourage them to eat and drink well and minimise what they do.

“In an ideal world, it takes days to recover from contact because it’s quite a traumatic experience. But we don’t have that time. For the two days after the game they’ll do barely anything physically.

“We have a small squad so we have to manage them differently. We manage training loads and then do extensive testing on the players, things like vertical jump tests and endurance tests.

“After the days off we’ve actually found the players are more effective than after a day’s training so, in this case, rest is best.

“Heavy work can be more detrimental than effective and we get more injuries than fitness from it.”

Evans’ methods have paid off in the past, the Aussie playing a key role on the backroom staff at Ian Millward’s successful St Helens side early in the last decade.

It has provided an understanding of what is required for success and compromise plays a big part in that.

Inevitably, the coaching staff want as much time with the players as possible, while the medical staff stress recovery, but the ideal is somewhere in between.

Evans said: “We want to hit the ground running when we’re playing rugby league.

“But you don’t want to over-do the rest either. It’s important the physical, medical and coaching staff work together to decide what’s best for the team.

“Steve and Lee St Hilaire look after the coaching staff and I constantly talk to Martin Higgins and Andy Senior as well to come to a group decision.”

Evans, appointed in the winter to replace the outgoing Martin Clawson, has found his new role particularly challenging, yet satisfying, so far.

“The squad’s smaller so there’s even more pressure on us to keep the players fresh,” he said.

“This year will be a bit of a settling in period and we’ll start to see proper results next season.

“You can see the club is headed in the right direction and we have some underlying young players who we hope will come through. That will be rewarding for the club.”