Signed to play in the halves ahead of last season, Tom Holmes instead found his niche at Bulls as their first-choice full back, and was arguably the club’s player of the year in 2023.
But with Lee Gaskell out injured on Sunday for the Betfred Championship game at Dewsbury and hot prospect Aidan McGowan champing at the bit to return to the side, Holmes was shifted alongside Jordan Lilley, and delivered arguably his best performance at stand-off for the club to date.
He helped exert control on the game and manoeuvred the team around the field expertly, even helping himself to a try in his side’s 38-12 win, a result that keeps Bradford fourth but also moves them three points clear of fifth-placed Widnes.
Bulls’ head coach Eamon O’Carroll was impressed by Holmes’ contribution against Dewsbury, and depending on the severity of Gaskell’s hamstring problem, knows he will have to continually rely on the former Castleford, Huddersfield and Featherstone man at No.6.
Discussing Sunday’s game with the T&A at full-time, O’Carroll said: “I thought Tom and Jordy were good.
“Jordy goes under the radar sometimes, and I thought he controlled things really well, while Tom did what he does.
“There’s a bit of frustration for him, because he wants to play full back, but he understands the team need him to play at stand off at the minute.
“He put his hand up and did a great job for us today and that half back pairing of him and Jordan will only get stronger as the games approach us, as we’ll get to work on those combinations in training.”
Rock-bottom Dewsbury probably edged the first 15 minutes of Sunday’s game, and they caused Bulls problems for much of the first half, before the visitors pulled away impressively after the interval.
Bradford’s last away game at Whitehaven also brought them problems early on, before a noticeable improvement as the game progressed.
Any slow start for Bulls this Saturday at in-form Toulouse is likely to be punished far more heavily than by weaker Whitehaven and Dewsbury sides, though O’Carroll insisted his side did plenty right in the first half against the Rams.
He said: “I don’t think the start was slow, so to speak, it just was in terms of the scoreboard.
“We don’t have to get that ticking over straightaway and I speak to the group about that all the time.
“I still felt we were kicking the ball and defending and receiving it well and that’s the team we want to be.
“We want to have to learn to be able to break teams down, because when you face top sides like Toulouse and Wakefield, you can’t just score a hatful of points straightaway.
“You need to build into the game and have an element of patience.
“Don’t get me wrong, there were certainly things we could have done better in the first half, especially the first 15 minutes, but I didn’t think we were too bad.
“I’m okay with start overall.”
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