Bradford Bulls head coach hoping for difficult conversations

It is not a luxury he has been able to afford for what has been an injury and suspension-ravaged 2024, but big names are starting to return.

Among those are forward duo Ebon Scurr and Sam Hallas, whose fan favourite status alone will not be enough to ensure they slot straight back into the matchday 17 and stay there.

O’Carroll said: “It’ll be a big period for the pair of them.

“They have to make sure they take their opportunity and I’m sure they will, but I’m actually hopeful that next week (against Sheffield) will mean I need to have a really tough conversation with some lads.

“It could be that I’m telling lads that while they played well against Dewsbury, they didn’t quite do a certain couple of things, and that’s why they’re out of the squad for Sheffield.

“I’ll be reinforcing that message with the players before the Dewsbury game, especially among the forwards.”

O’Carroll says experienced prop Nathan Mason will be guaranteed some game time against the Rams tonight, even though he is not yet back at his peak.

The Bulls head coach said: “I still think Nathy’s got a part to play for us in 2024.

“I’m probably more excited about next year, given what he can do over a full pre-season.

“But he’s worked extremely hard to get back in shape, I know his quality, and I’m looking forward to giving him an opportunity.

“He will feature against Dewsbury this week, though I’m not sure what his minutes will look like.

“I love how he’s gone about his business and was really honest in telling us that he had a bit of work to do to get back to his best.

“He’s put the effort in, (head of strength and conditioning) Nick Botten has done a great job with him and he’s ready to go.

“We probably will still see the best of him next year though.”

Like Mason, Romain Franco and Jack Smith will both be hoping to impress tonight, with one of them likely to start due to Jorge Taufua being suspended.

Jorge Taufua is prolific out on the wing, but he cannot play against Dewsbury, which is set to give Romain Franco or Jack Smith a chance to start. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

O’Carroll said: “This week is a chance for them to force their way into the side and that’s exciting.

“We’re not fully sure where we’ll go with it at the minute against Dewsbury, because we could play Romain at centre and move Max Lehmann back out to the wing, or Jack could be a direct swap for Jorge.

“Liam Tindall is back with us too now, though he’s not in the squad for Dewsbury, so we’ve got a couple of options in that wing position.”

And for once this season, Bulls have options at half back, with the lesser-spotted Lee Gaskell back in the squad for Dewsbury to replace Jarrod Sammut.

O’Carroll explained: “It was forced a bit with Jarrod, because he was struggling with his shoulder against Doncaster and that was clear from his performance, even though he still did some great things for us.

“We have to be smart with Jarrod, given his age and the fact he’s not played a lot of rugby this year, while this is also an opportunity to give Gasky some game time now he’s back.

“If Gasky wasn’t fit yet, and wasn’t really due back for another two weeks, Jaz would have been able to play in this game.”

O’Carroll wants whoever does play tonight to do so unburdened, saying: “There’s no pressure on the group, just expectation, which is a different thing and I want the players to be excited about that.

“The pressure is on me, making sure I prepare the team as best as I can.

“We understand we’re now getting to the back end of the season, and we’ve spoken about breaking these last eight games into two blocks of four.

“We’re in game four of our first four-game block, and then after Dewsbury, we’ll re-assess where we are going into our last four.

“Hopefully, after those four, we’ll be able to go into a two or three-game play-off block, so we’ve just broken everything up that way.

“If we come out of this first block of four with three wins and losing one by a point, we’ll be relatively happy with that.”

Keven Appo scored a key try to help Bulls battle to victory at Doncaster last Sunday. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

Dewsbury are already relegated, and with this game coming just five days after the gruelling win at Doncaster, it feels like the perfect time to mix things up.

O’Carroll warned: “There are a couple of individuals we’re deliberately looking after for this week, but I didn’t want to change too much.

“This is a dangerous game because there’s no pressure on Dewsbury, so they could do anything.

“It’d be really naïve of me to go into this match thinking we’ll just get it done, because we’ve slipped up a number of times this year and we can’t afford to do that now.”