Bradford Bulls ace John Davies knows Widnes Vikings game key

Fifth hosts fourth in the Betfred Championship as Bradford travel to Widnes, and the visitors know victory will give them some valuable breathing space in their push for a home play-off.

He told the T&A: “I’d say it’s one of the biggest games of the year.

“We’re only a point behind Sheffield and then if we can win this weekend, a gap will start to emerge between fourth and fifth.

Bulls could overtake Sheffield and go third in the table with a win, but their main goal today is building a gap over fifth-placed Widnes. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

“As we go into the back end of the season, we could do with putting some points between us and any teams who might surge late, like York did last year to make the play-offs.

“This game gives us chance to put two wins between ourselves and Widnes, which would just give us some breathing room.

“Teams never want to lose games, but on the off chance we come unstuck in a fixture we’re expected to win, like we did away to Batley in May, later this season, we’d be under less pressure if we’ve won this game against Widnes.

“It’s a massive fixture this weekend.”

Davies will probably be feeling like a dad looking after his 16 kids at times today, with virtually every other elder statesman in the squad unavailable through injury or, in the case of Jorge Taufua, suspension.

Sadly, that has hardly been a unique occurrence for Davies in 2024, who said: “It’s not a situation I expected to be in.

“We’ve been without our captain Michael (Lawrence) for a while and Dan (Smith) has been missing for so long.

“We’ve struggled to get people back, then we’ve had suspensions on top of that, so it’s been difficult.

“I don’t think we’ve played a match all year where we’ve had our strongest possible team out, but people like myself and (vice-captain) Jordan Lilley are just trying our best to get two points in each game and get the lads over the line.

“If stepping up and doing whatever’s needed for the team is part of that, then so be it.”

And Bulls really had to dig deep to drag themselves over the line at home to York last time out, as the Knights threatened to pull off an extraordinary comeback late on, only for Bulls to clinch a 36-28 victory with a last-gasp Zac Fulton try.

Zac Fulton's late try finally saw off York last Sunday, with the visitors threatening an extraordinary comeback. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

And Davies reflected: “I think it’d have been quite easy for the lads to just turn it in there under all that late pressure and say it just wasn’t our day if we had got turned over.

“To never give in and go the full length of the field and score that try through Zac, we were still in front by two points, so we didn’t have to support the play, but we went for it and it paid off.

“It was a gritty finish to the game and while we weren’t great last Sunday, it takes a lot to get two points when the momentum’s not on your side.”