BULLS boss Jimmy Lowes was delighted to open the Championship campaign with a win on a day when promotion rivals Leigh lost.

Bradford saw off Featherstone 22-12 thanks to a hat-trick from Omari Caro after a fine individual effort from Lee Gaskell.

In a tough, bruising encounter, Lowes’ men ultimately had too much class for Jon Sharp’s part-time outfit, who included three Leeds Rhinos players on dual-reg in their line-up.

Lowes’ side were beaten in their opening game last season to Leigh, who yesterday lost 24-22 at Batley yesterday thanks to a try from Bradford star Shaun Ainscough.

Head coach Lowes said: “It was as I expected – a tough encounter between two sides who wanted to play physical.

“It’s always pleasing to start with a win and some of the stuff we had practised, particularly in the second half, started to pay off.

“But generally it was a tough game and that’s what we brought Omari to the club for – to put the ball down over the line.

“I wasn’t sure why he had a fourth disallowed for a forward pass, but we brought Omari in last year to do exactly that because he can finish and that’s one of his big strong points.

“He’s got a lot of other stuff to work on but he certainly knows how to put the ball down.

“It’s always nice to get your first win but like I said after Leigh beat us last year in the first game, this win won’t define what will happen for the rest of the season, particularly the business end.

“We just need to try and build consistency ourselves and we can do that on the back of a winning start as opposed to what we had last year at Leigh.”

Richie Mathers and Kris Welham both played 80 minutes while fellow new-boys Kurt Haggerty and Jonny Walker also impressed.

The only negative for Bradford was an injury to the final debutant, prop Ben Kavanagh, who was forced off in the first half.

Lowes added: “I was pleased with them all – everybody showed glimpses of what they can do.

“I thought we lost our way a bit in the first half by giving a couple of penalties away and making a couple of daft errors.

“But generally in the second half I thought we showed some nice touches.

“Ben isn’t sure what he has done but it’s he took a knock to his ankle and lower shin. We will get a full assessment over the next couple of days.”