Bradford Bulls have benchmark now despite errors in France

Bradford showed some flashes of inspiration, but were ruthlessly punished by their French hosts whenever mistakes were made.

And Greenwood knows those lessons must be learned if Bulls are to truly compete with, and beat, full-time teams going forward.

Speaking after last night’s game, Greenwood told the T&A: “You’ve got to be pretty good against Toulouse and to a man, we needed to be eight or nine out of 10 today.

“While I think the collective effort was there, some of the things we did and decisions we made probably cost us.

“Toulouse catch you out on a lot of things. You can defend well for five tackles then on the sixth, somebody runs it, they’ve got a man back on the inside and if you switch off slightly, that’s the try conceded.

“They’re pretty ruthless and good at what they do but we caused them enough problems.

“If we’d got some more of the basic things right, we’d have given ourselves a better chance.

“Toulouse deservedly won the game today and for us it’s about learning from this.

“The vast majority of the squad are going to be here again next year, and we’ve done a good job to finish third and win the first play-off game.

“That’s now the starting point for this group of players.

“There’s been a lot of upheaval and change at the club this year but where and how it’s finished needs to be the benchmark for next year now.”

While nowhere near as bad as we have seen at times over the last few years, there were odd occasions where Bulls let their tempers get the better of them against an aggressive Toulouse side.

They also conceded a few soft tries, out of keeping with the defensive excellence they have shown over the last few weeks.

Skipper Michael Lawrence has helped marshal Bulls into a solid defensive unit of late, but the side will have been disappointed with the ease with which Toulouse scored some of their tries last night. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

But Greenwood said: “That’s to do with the level of opposition as well, as Toulouse are a step up from what we’ve faced recently, especially out here with the quicker game and wider field.

“They’ve tested us more than any other team have done this season, both times we’ve come out here.

“I think we improved from the last time we were here, but we still didn’t quite do well enough.

“Whether that’s quality of player from Toulouse or us not quite concentrating for long enough, it’s hard to say.

“Maybe against other teams, you don’t get caught out on some of the things we were caught out with today.

“But it’s a lesson for all of them out there, young or old, if they want to be in these games come the end of the season next year, they’re going to be up against a full-time team somewhere along the line.

George Flanagan turns 37 today, but even he can still learn new things from last night's defeat to Toulouse. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

“You’ve got to be fit in your head and fit physically, so the players have been challenged to make sure they’re in good shape come day one of pre-season.”

Full-time team Toulouse did not have it all their own way though, and Bulls showed enough promise in attack to be rightfully disappointed to only come away with three tries.

Greenwood said: “We got some of our attacking bang on and we caught Toulouse out a few times, certainly on our left.

“But then we didn’t quite have the patience or smartness to do the right thing on the next play or in the next few tackles after that.

“There are things to work on, things to learn, as it is a relatively new team, when you look at the combinations out there at the moment compared to the ones that started the season.

“Each individual can work on some things going forward, and collectively we can as well.”