Friday Interview - Paul Handforth: Following the herd in effort to lead Bulldogs to big Cup upset

MAINTAINING a tight grip on Catalans Dragons' beefy pack should hold no problems for Paul Handforth.

The prospect of bringing a halt to the French side's marauding forwards offers little worry to the Batley Bulldogs stand-off given his daily grind is something far more exerting.

A robust Jamal Fakir or snorting Jerome Guisset running towards him may look like a raging bull but is nothing compared to the sight of a whole herd of hefty stampeding cows.

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That is what the former Wakefield Trinity Wildcats player finds himself encountering nowadays and sometimes, to his chagrin, they are heading in the other direction.

"Catalans will have been training full-time all week ready for this one," said Handforth, ahead of tomorrow evening's intriguing Carnegie Challenge Cup quarter-final tie at Mount Pleasant.

"Me, I'll have been chasing cows.

"It was great to play rugby all day as a full-time job but you have got to look at the long-term picture.

"You need something for after rugby. My dad started his own business in the building trade and I joined him there.

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"Unfortunately, people stopped buying houses so I was out of work.

"That's why I'm working on a farm now here in East Ardsley.

"It's all manual labour stuff. I'm in at seven in the morning, finishing at five and looking after the cows, so it's definitely different but I'm enjoying it."

Ex-Castleford player Handforth – still only 28 – then trains three evenings a week with his Championship club who are eyeing a rare upset.

Batley may not have won the Challenge Cup since 1901 but have plenty of reason for optimism of at least reaching the semi-finals for the first time in 99 years.

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Catalans – whose coach Kevin Walters yesterday announced he will be leaving at the end of the season – are rooted at the bottom of Super League after seven consecutive defeats and required a last-minute drop goal to nervously edge past Crusaders in the previous round.

Batley, meanwhile, head into their biggest fixture in recent memory on the back of a three-match winning run which produced 147 points, saw them concede just five tries and included an impressive 35-16 success at Widnes on Sunday.

"We've actually been playing really well in the last five games," added Handforth, son of former Bradford Northern hooker Tony, who won the 1979-80 Championship at Odsal and assisted the late David Topliss at Trinity during the early 1990s.

"We were unlucky against Toulouse and Sheffield and things have really started coming together.

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"The board are seeing Catalans at home as the worst possible draw we could have got but they're thinking about the gate receipts.

"For us as players though, it is a real opportunity for us to beat them and there's no reason why we can't.

"They definitely won't have played on anything like Batley Hill before. When they come out and see that it will be a real eye-opener and it gives us the best opportunity of getting to a semi-final."

Batley's famous pitch slopes down nine feet from one end to the other, perplexing plenty of bemused visitors during its long history.

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After joining from Doncaster during last season, Handforth now knows every inch of it just as well as the farmer's fields he commands.

If Batley, the first winners of the Challenge Cup in 1897, are to overturn Walters's side Handforth's game knowledge, guile and kicking game will be crucial.

The average age of the team is just 21 and coach Karl Harrison looks to the livewire half-back – one of the few with genuine Super League experience – to direct and organise his side.

Handforth certainly has the experience to call upon. When he first broke into the Wakefield squad back in 2000, current England coach Steve McNamara was one of the club's playmakers, as was the present France coach, fearsome scrum-half Bobbie Goulding.

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England stars Gareth Ellis and Ben Westwood were then just rising through the Wildcats ranks with him and he made his debut against a Warrington side that ironically contained the same Guisset he will face at the weekend but also Kiwi legend Tawera Nikau and Australia's renowned scrum-half Allan Langer

"That was special," recalls Handforth.

"Most of my debut was a blur but I'll never forget that – coming onto the field as a kid and going up against one of the greats like Alfie Langer, who's been there and done it all.

"It was great but so was life at Wakefield. It was a great club to be around.

"We never had the facilities or money of other clubs but we were always in and around with the rest.

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"A lot of people in our Academy side went on to play at a high level – like Keith Mason, Ben Westwood, Danny Brough, Steve Snitch and Tommy Haughey."

Handforth scored 10 tries in 62 Super League appearances for his hometown club, mainly coming off the bench at hooker or scrum-half, before switching to Castleford in 2005.

It was fitting the player nicknamed 'Tiger' – like his father before him – should eventually play for the Tigers and after helping them back into Super League he faced Catalans twice during their debut campaign of 2006.

Castleford lost both times but Handforth, who dropped down to the Championship with Featherstone the following year, is confident he can correct that record in Batley colours.

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"The standard of the Championship is a lot better now than it used to be and Batley is a real good family club," says the Ireland international.

"Hopefully we can do it for everyone here.

"We're expecting a physical battle as they are a big side.

"They will try and get in and bash us but our pack has been going well and if they stand up and front up, there's no reason why we can't turn them over."

Rocky Balboa overcame Apollo Creed after chasing chickens in an alleyway. Cows are a different proposition but Handforth's own regime could signal the start of the same underdog success story.