Bulls’ bench made all the difference on Sunday night, as young tyros Fenton Rogers and Eribe Doro inspired a turnaround.
The hosts looked flat in their Betfred Championship play-off eliminator against York until the half-hour mark, before the pair, along with Papua New Guinea international Keven Appo, began to punch holes in the visiting defence.
Territorial gains and a trio of tries followed, and it was hugely impressive to see two young props with little experience inspire the side.
Bulls’ interim head coach Lee Greenwood said after the game: “Good on them.
“I feel Fenton’s generally been good for us all season, always having things to work on, as you’d expect with a young lad.
“He maybe went through a patch when he came back to us from Huddersfield in July, where he wasn’t as good as when he left us.
“But in the last couple of weeks, he’s stepped up massively.
“I thought Sheffield away was his best performance for us, then I think he topped that again tonight, he was outstanding.
“Eribe’s just been like that since he joined. Whatever happened at Halifax happened with him.
“We were fortunate to get him but we made him feel welcome, and we just take people how we see them.
“He’s been really impressive around the place with how he trains and conducts himself. He’s an aggressive player with a really good work ethic and attitude.
“He’s been good starting or off the bench and though he stood out a bit tonight, he’s been playing like that since he joined us so it was no surprise.
“There were no surprises with any of the players, because they don’t mind challenges been thrown at them, and it’s a big one again next week.”
Bulls may take real confidence into their semi-final clash at Toulouse, having beaten the hugely in-form London and Batley over the last few weeks.
But Greenwood insisted: “We’re massive underdogs for next week, so that’s changed slightly from those two games.
“We shouldn’t underestimate the quality in our team though, because when we’re on it, there’s some really good players here too.
“We have people in our team that can hurt Toulouse as much as they can hurt us.
“The main thing is getting the whole team performance, because if we get that right, we’ve got a great chance.
“The players can’t wait for it now and we’ve been waiting a while for this, because we were all hugely disappointed with what we served up last time we went.
“There are some changes we can make leading up to going, and actually when we get there, preparing for the game.
“Those things didn’t take us by surprise, but they didn’t really help us perform.
“We’ve learnt from that and hopefully we’ll serve up an improved performance and more of a game this time around.”
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