EAMON O’Carroll paid tribute to Sam Hallas who insisted on playing for the Bulls just three days after his dad’s death.

Steve Hallas passed away on Thursday night but Hallas told O’Carroll that he wanted to stay involved against York.

Speaking after the Bulls’ 36-28 win at Odsal, the head coach said: “Sam has been amazing and I wouldn’t expect anything different from him.

“That’s why I was happy for the win and the way I’ve seen the group pull together.

“It must be terrible for him because I know how close he was to his dad. His dad was a great man – I spent some time up in Newcastle with him and his mum and he followed Sam everywhere.

“It was quite unexpected as well but Sam said to me that it was business as usual and he wanted to play.

Sam Hallas is consoled during the minute's silenceSam Hallas is consoled during the minute's silence (Image: Tom Pearson)

“I was so happy for him. You could see his reaction when we went over for that last try.”

A minute's silence was held before the game and the Bulls players formed a guard of honour for Hallas after the final hooter.

Bulls got back to winning ways after last week’s home loss to leaders Wakefield. But it was a nervy finale as York clawed back a 30-10 deficit to get within two points.

O’Carroll admitted to seeing flashbacks of their late home loss against Widnes, their next opponents.

“We didn’t have to put ourselves in that position. We were quite poor defensively for our standard.

“At 30-10 we should be seeing that game out. To concede 28 points is way off our standard and we’re not happy about that.

“I’ve seen a very similar game with this group before and we’ve been on the wrong side of it.

 

 

“Whatever happened today, we found something to get the job done towards the end. It’s not perfect but that’s a huge step in the right direction.”

The Bulls ran in seven tries – with Zac Fulton making sure of the victory with the final score two minutes from time to kill off York’s fightback.

“We had lots of effort but you could just see us running out of steam,” added O’Carroll.

“The game lacked any rhythm. We’re at our best when we’re going set for set and it was really stop-start.”