HEAD coach Eamon O’Carroll says that Bradford Bulls are now close to getting the best out of prop Franklin Pele.

The 23-year-old, who signed for the Bulls in June after being released by Hull, certainly had an eye-catching game in the 50-0 rout of visitors Swinton Lions last Sunday that concluded the regular season in the Betfred Championship.

Pele’s wow moment came when he scored his hat-trick try, taking several Swinton players over the line with him as they failed to stop the Kiwi powerhouse. 

His superb form is making the decision to hand him a one-year contract extension until the end of 2025 look better with every passing weekend.

O’Carroll admitted: “Franklin simplified his game (against Swinton) and understood what his strength is.

"We spoke to him about how people were struggling to tackle him and hanging off the ball.

"He will continue to take juice out of opposition defences.”

However, O’Carroll admitted that fellow interchange Ebon Scurr had pushed full-back Tom Holmes in terms of being man of the match.

Ebon Scurr was another prop who made a positive impression on Eamon O'Carroll at the weekend.Ebon Scurr was another prop who made a positive impression on Eamon O'Carroll at the weekend. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

He said: “You look at the way that they (Scurr and Pele) carried the ball, which was great, but I was happy with their defensive attitude.

"I thought they were really controlled in what they did and moved well off the ball.

“There were a couple of inside plays and they were involved in clearing that up.

“Ebon was close to being man of the match, just with the way that he carried the ball.

"There were some real selective offloads too, and he was ripping it out of tackles and getting a quick play-the-ball.

"But I was more happy with his defence, which was fantastic, as was Franklin’s.”

However, although it was a good performance by the Bulls in defeating a side who are battling against relegation, there are areas of improvement to be made.

O’Carroll said: “Jarrod (Sammut) trying for a drop goal and missing and the cross field kick that went into touch on tackle two will keep us humble.

“We can’t be doing that. We need to be better there, we got a bit giddy there when we didn’t need to and it gives us something to look at.”