Toon trip provides Bulls with opportunity to bounce back and build momentum as season comes to a close

Bradford Bulls will be looking to kick-start a positive end to the regular season by bouncing back from two straight defeats as they travel to take on Newcastle Thunder at Kingston Park.

With six games remaining and a spot in the play-offs all but secured, it’s fair to say that the fourth-placed Bulls have taken their foot off the gas somewhat in recent weeks.

Defeat to Featherstone Rovers may have been expected and a resilient performance losing out by six points with a late Rovers try will have given Bradford fans some encouragement, but last week’s loss away at Halifax Panthers will have disappointed them.

Albeit a close game, 24-21 the score come the final hooter, John Kear’s men missed the opportunity to leapfrog the Panthers and go third in the Betfred Championship table. The top two of Toulouse and Fev is now more or less nailed on, so to go ‘top’ of that ‘mini-league’ underneath would have been huge psycholgically.

That said, the Bulls have had some respite since then with last weekend’s scheduled clash against Sheffield Eagles being called off, giving Kear’s side time to rest up, reflect and prepare for a big end to the season starting on Saturday evening up in Newcastle.

Opponents Thunder have enjoyed a fairly mixed campaign to date having recovered from an early stint in the relegation zone to prise themselves away from danger, picking up 5 wins from 15 games. Sat 11th at the time of writing, Newcastle shouldn’t have to worry about the drop anymore and now should be looking to build some positive feeling going into the next campaign.

The play-off spots are undoubtedly a step too far for Eamon O’Carroll’s side, almost a mathematical impossibility now. Their last three outings have all ended in defeat, most recently losing out 14-12 to Halifax last weekend in what was another good advert for the Betfred Championship.

Trailing 12-0 at half-time, two converted tries by Thunder in the second half would’ve been enough to claim a point, but a converted penalty by the Panthers midway through the half ensured that the points remained in Yorkshire.

For Newcastle’s last success, you have to go back to July 11 as they came out on top at home against Dewsbury Rams with a scoreline of 24-12.

Squads

Bradford duo Ben Evans (prop) and Billy Jowitt (halfback) are back in contention for the trip up to the toon, included in boss Kear’s squad. Jordan Baldwinson however will not be involved as he has now returned to parent club and fellow Championship outfit York City Knights following the conclusion of his one-week loan. 

Matty Dawson-Jones and Elliot Kear also remain side-lined alongside Bulls’ key man Danny Brough, though the veteran 38-year-old is said to be edging ever-closer to a return as the regular season draws towards a close.

Meanwhile, Newcastle welcomed back forwards Kyle Trout and Nathan Wilde in defeat at Halifax last week, so both of those are expected to feature again for the visit of Bradford. Former Wigan Warriors man Jake Shorrocks is also a player to watch out for in Thunder’s side, and boss O’Carroll will be hoping that his quality can shine through against the Bulls.

Head-t0-Head

Since re-branding from Gateshead Thunder to Newcastle Thunder in 2015, the Bulls have only come up against Saturday night’s opponents on three occasions.

In the 2018 campaign, when Bradford slipped into rugby league’s third division (League 1), the pair met twice. B The Bulls won both, 16-26 away and more comfortably 24-4 at home. That season, after missing out on the league title to York by two points, Bradford went on to win the play-offs and secured promotion back up into the Championship.

Since then, they hadn’t come toe-to-toe with Newcastle until earlier in this campaign when again, the Bulls triumphed. 31-12 at full-time, though Thunder gave as good as they got in the first half and actually went in level at 6-6 at the break.

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