Bradford Bulls' true derby grit against Leeds Rhinos gives Kurt Haggerty reasons to be cheerful
BRADFORD BULLS’ 100 per cent home record may have gone, but coach Kurt Haggerty was proud of the grit shown by his side in their derby loss to Leeds Rhinos on Friday night.
Bulls, who had won their three previous Super League games at Odsal, led twice and were in the game throughout, despite a mounting injury list which left them down to 14 available players by the end.
Haggerty, whose side lost 24-12, said: “The attitude and application was first class. I thought we worked tirelessly for 80 minutes.
“We finished the game with one sub on the bench, so we are walking a bit wounded, but we speak about the next man up mentality and we kept working hard.
“I thought we lost a couple of big moments in the game, there were a couple of switch offs, but overall I am proud of the effort.”
Bulls withstood heavy pressure in the first half and broke away to score two tries to one as they went in 8-6 ahead, but Haggerty conceded all that effort took its toll in the final 40.
“They had 30 play-the-balls in our half in the first half and it fatigued us,” he said. “We kept turning them away, but it takes energy. We are still learning and when you switch off at this level, teams will get you. We did that at times.”
Bulls lost centre Waqa Blake, second-row Leon Ruan and substitute Phoenix Steinwede to injuries during the match and Jayden Nikorima and Luke Hooley didn’t play.
“Waqa looks like mcl [medial collateral ligament] and I think Phoenix is a syndesmosis [ankle damage],” Haggerty said.
“Both are pretty serious and Leon failed his head injury assessment. Ryan Sutton was struggling, Luke Hooley is out for a few weeks and so is Jayden Nikorima.
“Jayden’s a hamstring. I think it’s an old injury and he’s probably looking at six-eight weeks. He did it in the Castleford game.
“He trained the majority of the week, but dropped out of the second to last session and went for a scan.
“Luke has got a shoulder injury and will go to see a specialist on Tuesday. It could either be a week or three to six months.”
“We will keep cracking on,” added Haggerty. “We are the same as everyone else - we are not going to start whinging, that would be no good for us. We will look at it, review and move on.”