EAMON O’Carroll watched the Bulls lose by a point for a third time this year and admitted: “You’d love to play against us.”

Featherstone sneaked a 22-21 victory at Odsal with a disputed late penalty from Ben Reynolds.

There was controversy over referee Cameron Worsley’s decision to award it for a ball steal on Wellington Albert – when video showed that the forward had lost the ball in the tackle.

But O’Carroll felt the defeat – which saw the Bulls miss out on going third in the congested Championship table – was “self-inflicted”.

You’d love to play against us, wouldn’t you,” he said. “I told the team that.

“You know you’re not going to have to work that hard to get an opportunity. We’ll give you something and it’s bitterly disappointing.

“We brought a lot of pressure on ourselves. It was self-inflicted.

“We hurt ourselves constantly throughout the game and Featherstone were able to capitalise on that.

“I’ll have a good look at the penalty but the way we were going, it wasn’t surprising.”

Powerhouse Franklin Pele ran in two tries as the Bulls recovered from 12 points down to lead at half-time.

O’Carroll was particularly unhappy with the sloppiness of the Bulls in possession and they finished just over half their sets.

“We completed 51 per cent and we speak about respecting the ball for the full game. We played frantic when we said we didn’t need to.

“I thought we had done really well to get back in the game and go two points up at half-time.

“But then we just completely imploded at crucial times. We gave away a tackle five penalty for interference which gave them field position when we’re one point up.

“Then we give them a tackle five ball steal in kicking distance to give them the game.

“It was just poor individual skill at crucial times. We’d force an error defensively and give ourselves an opportunity for some field position and then go and make an error on play one.

“It’s crazy. We needed to be calmer but we had a lot of dumbness about us.”