BULLS back-rower Brad England candidly admitted to the T&A last August that 2022 had been a "really disappointing year" for him at the club, so his head coach Mark Dunning is delighted that the 28-year-old has started 2023 with a bang.

England was superb in Bulls' opening trial game, a 34-16 win at Dewsbury last Sunday, with the forward voted man of the match by the club's supporters.

It may only have been a friendly, but hopefully that performance is a sign of better times ahead for the former Doncaster man.

Dunning told the T&A: "Brad's been here a couple of years now, but I'd been tracking him for a long time before that at Doncaster when I was working under John Kear.

"For a chunk of his career, Brad's not had a properly structured pre-season for various reasons, so at the back end of 2022, with us knowing we wanted him to be key for us this season, we knew that had to change.

"He's been outstanding for us in pre-season and we saw the rewards of that at Dewsbury."

Another rewarding aspect of that win last weekend was the promising link-up between Tom Holmes and Myles Lawford in the halves, with Jordan Lilley also doing a sterling job in an unfamiliar hooker position.

With Dec Patton back in the frame now too after his suspension, choosing who to play in those key pivot positions might prove to be a real dilemma.

But Dunning said: "We have four quality half-backs, and it's my job to make sure we have as many of them on the field at the same time.

"But we have to ensure that's not to the detriment of the team."

Joking about the versatile Lilley, he added: "I've heard Jordan might even want to try his hand at prop this week."

Bulls host Huddersfield this week, with Dunning expecting a real test regardless of the squad the Giants bring to the game.

Asked if he would be in contact with Huddersfield about the calibre of players they would be selecting to go up against Bulls tomorrow, Dunning said: "I speak to the other coaches, and I'm in touch with (Giants head coach) Ian Watson regularly, because we have Fenton Rogers and George Roby on loan from there.

"If you look at Huddersfield's roster, I don't think it has any weak links, they have Super League quality from 1-35.

"I don't see any bad players in their squad, and it's a very talented one.

"Whoever comes here this weekend, it'll be a big challenge for us."

Tomorrow's game against Huddersfield will now be played at Dewsbury, just like last week, with Bulls not expecting Odsal to be fit to host the game due to the current adverse weather conditions.

That means there will no pre-season game at Odsal this year, a venue where Bulls had a dreadful record last season.

But Dunning insisted: "It's always good to be at Odsal and for me there's no better place in rugby league when the sun is shining there.

"There's no bad feeling about the place from this current group either, and we're all excited to play there.

"I hope we can turn our form from last season there on its head of course.

"We want to have a really good home record compared to last season and to make it difficult for opposition sides to come and play there."