BULLS head coach John Kear insisted his side could take a lot from their friendly at Dewsbury Rams yesterday, despite a 24-0 defeat in Arctic conditions.

He said of the team that lined up for former Bulls player Paul Sykes’ testimonial: “The average age was 20 years and four months, and a lot of them were making their debuts.

“A lot of the young lads have done themselves good individually and some of the more established players led well also, so it was a very worthwhile exercise in very, very, very trying conditions, and a lot of people have emerged with credit.

“In conditions like that, physicality comes out as the winner, but in the team talk I asked for a great deal of effort, a great deal of work and a never-say-die attitude, and I got those in spades, and I was really impressed with some of the debutants.”

Jamel Goodall was named as the Bulls’ man of the match and Kear said: “He was tremendous but Evan Hodgson was exceptional as well, Mikey Wood had his best game of the three so far and Liam Johnson showed glimpses too.

“They can feel happy with what they have done. Remember, there were eight or nine not playing who you would expect to be in the starting line-up – more than half the side – so if you put all that together we have a half-decent team.”

A recurrence of Joe Keyes’ knee injury was the only negative for Kear, who said: “We thought that it was right, and perhaps we should have held him back for another week and not put him out in those conditions, but it is easy to be wise after the event, but Brandon (Pickersgill) has certainly put his hand up.”