BRADFORD Bulls head coach Eamon O’Carroll disagreed that his side struggled to create on Sunday, despite only scoring two points in their Betfred Championship defeat to Wakefield.
It marked the first time Bradford have failed to score a try in a league game since they were nilled at Featherstone in June 2021 and it proved to be a difficult game for makeshift half back Tyran Ott.
With Tom Holmes having to return to full back following Aidan McGowan’s recall by parent club Huddersfield, Sunday felt as if it was crying out for the ingenuity of Lee Gaskell at stand off alongside Jordan Lilley.
But O’Carroll told the T&A after the match: “There’s an element there where I’d probably disagree with you, because I felt we did create some chances.
“But you don’t have the right just to execute every single one, because you’re playing against a great team in Wakefield.
“I thought we fixed some people well, the execution of our line running was good, and we created some opportunities out of the back with Tom, we just didn’t ice those.
“That was down to the quality of Wakefield and their defending.
“Top end games should be like that. We had a 12-12 draws last week in Toulouse and there was one try in the whole game today.
“Those are the matches we want to be involved in, we just want to be on the right side of the score now.”
A sign of how much Bradford have improved over the last couple of months came with them only conceding 14 points on Sunday to Wakefield, the least the runaway leaders have scored in a league game all season.
When the pair faced off at Odsal in the 1895 Cup semi-finals in May, Bradford’s effort levels could not really be called into question, yet they still lost heavily, going down to a 40-14 defeat.
O’Carroll reflected: “It’s credit to the players, they work really hard for each other and they put a lot into that.
“We as coaches try and facilitate it in terms of our training and what we do around the environment we’ve created, but it’s the players who really buy into it.
“They have something special there and they want to keep turning up for each other.
“Some of the things we did in that semi-final probably weren’t perfect, but we’re not after that.
Joe Arundel takes on Jay Pitts in Bulls' heavy AB Sundecks 1895 Cup semi-final defeat in May. (Image: Tom Pearson.)
“We just want the players to keep turning up for each other and working hard.
“Our luck will change, our luck will turn, and I fully believe that.”
Bulls have had some bad luck with Huddersfield over the last couple of weeks, with both full back McGowan and prop Fenton Rogers recalled by the Giants to play in Super League fixtures.
Unlike McGowan, Rogers did play for Bulls in Toulouse, but he was not available to face Wakefield on Sunday.
But the blow of his absence in the front row was softened by Logan Bayliss and Nathan Mason, making their home debut and second debut for Bulls respectively.
Both performed well, but did not play too many minutes, with the pair looking noticeably fatigued in the second half.
O’Carroll said: “Logan missed all of pre-season with injury, but he’s fit and he’ll be okay.
“He only stepped off the plane from Australia last week and then travelled to Toulouse.
“We’ve immediately started him in two high-end games, against two full-time teams, and he’s only going to get better the longer he plays.
“We were aware with Nathan that he’d had some time off and he’d require easing back in, but we just needed him this week and he put his hand up to play.
“I thought for the time he was on the field today he did his job well.”
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