Bradford Bulls and Toulouse Olympique both glad of schedule

Both Toulouse and Bradford might just fall short of making it into the 12-team Super League next season based on their IMG grades, but victory in the Grand Final for either could give them half a chance.

Bulls have to travel to France due to them finishing third and their hosts coming second in the regular season.

That gave Toulouse a week off last week, while Bradford had to win that eliminator against Featherstone at Odsal to make the last four.

O’Carroll feels that situation probably benefitted both sides ahead of tomorrow’s clash, saying: “Toulouse, with all the travel they have to do for away games, it takes it out of you, I know that from my time with Catalans.

“You can get away with it once a season, but when you’re doing it every two weeks like they have to, it’s a huge challenge.

“With that in mind, (Toulouse head coach) Sylvain (Houles) probably feels last weekend was probably the right time for them to have the week off.

“But I’m on the other side of it and I think we needed to be playing last Sunday.

“We weren’t completely happy with where we were at, and we’ve used the last month to really knuckle down and focus on some things, like working on our intensity levels.

Bradford Bulls were not good enough in their defeat to Halifax last month, but they have been able to iron out kinks in their two games since. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

“I think we’ve been doing that game after game, but to do that, you need to be playing.

“It’s worked as an advantage for us, facing Featherstone, as I probably wouldn’t have been as happy having a week off.

“I’d have been really happy coming second, of course, but once I knew we were finishing third, I sat back and felt we probably need that first play-off game, and a tough one at that, so I’m happy with how it worked out.”

Toulouse lost three games in a row in August, looking extremely fallible in doing so, but then won five on the bounce to round off the regular season.

The last of those saw them obliterate visiting Batley 64-16, just a fortnight after the Bulldogs only lost by two points at Odsal.

But as O’Carroll fairly pointed out, Toulouse were in good form before their home draw with Bulls in July.

He said: “You’ve got to expect that good teams might hit form at certain times in the season, but I don’t think Toulouse were far off where they are now when we faced them in the summer.

“It’s knockout football now, so I imagine both teams will be very much on it this weekend.

“But there’s no doubt Toulouse are hitting their straps now and they’re playing some good rugby at the minute.”

One huge positive is that Bulls travel to the South of France with a squad unscathed from last Sunday’s brilliant win over Featherstone.

Bulls were superb last Sunday, with that victory surely filling them with confidence ahead of the trip to Toulouse. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

On top of that, Bradford’s travel plans now look in good shape, with O’Carroll saying on Thursday afternoon: “We’ve managed to sort something suitable, which is testament to the club.

“They’re going to get us down south on the train, so we can run our usual training programme on Friday.

“We’ll have some dinner together, then travel to Stansted, stay in a hotel Friday night, then go straight to the airport the day after.

“We fly back to Bristol on Monday and that’s fine, it’s more about the preparation for the game which is most important.”

Digital subscribers will be able to enjoy the T&A's minute-by-minute coverage of the Bulls' crucial game in France.

Reporter Harry Williams will be in France to cover the match and all the post-result interviews. His content will only be available to digital subscribers.

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