Bradford Bulls head coach has high praise for Eribe Doro

Bradford only had 18 men to pick from against the Eagles, after Joe Arundel's late withdrawal for family reasons.

That meant a debut for young academy talent Jacob Bateman, related to Bulls icon John, while there were out of position players wherever you looked.

Tom Holmes was named at full back after his return from cancer treatment had come exclusively at half back, Aidan McGowan was shifted out on to the wing, Tyran Ott was forced from hooker to stand off, while Doro lined up at loose forward instead of as prop, pushing regular No.13 John Davies into the second row.

Doro was probably Bradford's star man, leading from the front with some ferocious defending, as Sheffield were condemned to just their second Betfred Championship defeat of the season.

And O'Carroll claimed: "For me, Eribe's the best player in the competition at the minute, and I honestly believe that.

"We know how lucky we are to have him, with what he's doing for us, at that standard and at that intensity.

“He’s doing all that each week, while busted, struggling with some injuries.

“I absolutely love him to bits, he’s really important to the group, and he’s setting a high standard for the others.”

Doro and Keven Appo were probably the defensive standouts yesterday, but everyone did their bit, as a patched up side held firm, often having to produce heroics on their own tryline to keep Sheffield out.

Sheffield struggled to handle the powerful Keven Appo yesterday. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

O’Carroll said: “I hope we try to have the attitude of not letting the opposition through easily every week, but I’d argue we probably had to do much tryline defence in this game.

“I’m not sure why we were on our goal-line so much, so we’ll have a look at that.

“But the team work hard for each other, and sometimes it’s not perfect, but there’s always someone turning up for their mate.

“As a coach, that’s all you can really ask for from your players.”

But Bradford showed they were capable of attacking flair too yesterday, with a scintillating spell of three tries in nine minutes towards the end of the first half.

Even that came after a spell where Sheffield were on top though, with O’Carroll reflecting: “I think that’s the standard of the Championship at the minute.

“Games should be tight and that was, even right up until the last couple of minutes, we were never comfortable.

“Jayden (Okunbor) got the first of those three tries and he probably gave us a bit of a different threat with him in the centres.

Jayden Okunbor enjoyed a superb debut for Bulls yesterday, with his try the icing on the cake. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

“We’re really happy for him, he’s playing with a smile and he looks like he’s loving his time here (on loan from Hull FC).

“His family aren’t over here with him in the country and you have to take all that into consideration with players.

“But we’re confident, whenever we sign anyone, that we have people at the club who’ll look after them and if Jayden’s happy on that side of things, he’ll play well.”

Okunbor filled in superbly for Arundel, while Harvey Wilson and Dan Okoro were also absent against Sheffield, with the former needed by parent club Wigan and the latter missing with a knock.