Bradford Bulls 54 Swinton Lions 8

DEEP within the bowels of the Bulls’ training HQ at Tong on Thursday lunchtime, Matt Diskin made a few salient points.

Fulfilling his pre-match media duties for the final time as interim head coach, he spoke of the need for the team to start delivering.

The former Bulls captain talked of the side training like Tarzan and then playing like Jane on game-day.

He voiced his belief that the appointment of Rohan Smith will give this group of players a much-needed “kick up the backside”.

Well, on the evidence of today’s resounding victory, perhaps the penny has finally dropped.

Playing in front of new head coach Smith for the first time, the Bulls blitzed Swinton in a ten-try demolition which underlined their attacking potential.

Smith, noted for his attention to detail from a defensive point of view, will have been disappointed with the fact that Bradford are still conceding tries.

Swinton, who battled gamely throughout but were simply outclassed with plenty to spare, breached the Bulls’ line twice in the second half.

That will be an area for improvement when Smith begins work in his job tomorrow, but some of Bradford’s attacking play was a joy to behold in an at times niggly, penalty-strewn encounter.

James Clare was outstanding at full back and it would be a brave man to dislodge him from that position now after his two-try display.

Omari Caro also weighed in with a brace while Jacob Trueman came off the bench to make his senior debut in the second half alongside Lee Gaskell.

It is worth remembering that Bradford had won only three of their previous nine outings prior to Swinton’s visit.

Yet there was plenty to build on here and credit to Diskin for delivering the right response to the recent defeat at London.

Diskin has performed an outstanding job in working with the club’s young players in the academy as Under-19s boss.

Afforded the opportunity to pick the team for one last time, he handed a senior debut to 17-year-old Trueman while Matty Blythe and Ben Kavanagh returned after lengthy injuries.

Swinton were game enough opponents early on, just as they had been against the Bulls at Widnes in February, but they were also sluggish with their discipline.

The concession of four penalties – three of them back to back – stretched John Duffy’s men to breaking point.

Paul Clough went close before Jay Pitts narrowly failed to ground Gaskell's last-tackle grubber kick.

Blythe then knocked on horribly from Oscar Thomas' pass inside the right channel with the line begging.

Yet Bradford continued to probe and, after a big hit from Adam Sidlow forced the turnover, Adam O'Brien's neat pass found Clare advancing at pace from full back inside the left channel.

Clare once again underlined his ability to sniff out a try as his pace took him clear from 20 metres out for a seventh-minute opener.

The former Castleford winger, who is out of contract at the end of the season, seems to have found his niche at Odsal in the full back berth.

Then again, he scores when playing on the wing and in the centres too.

A second try came as no surprise in the 13th minute when Thomas found Danny Addy in midfield.

Playing in his favoured position of loose forward, but at the heart of everything as always for Bradford, Addy brilliantly broke the Swinton line and drove at the heart of the visitors’ defence.

He showed intelligence and no little skill to throw an exquisite long pass out to Caro on the left flank and he scampered over from 20 metres out.

It was a glorious score and, with Swinton struggling to quell the red, amber and black tide, a third try duly arrived in the 18th minute.

After O'Brien went close from acting half, neat handling from Gaskell and Pitts saw Sidlow barrel over from close range.

Addy landed his first conversion from three attempts to make it 14-0.

Swinton finally steadied themselves and began to enjoy a period of territorial dominance in the Bulls’ half.

The question, of course, was could they make it pay? They could not.

Kavanagh and Steve Crossley came on for Sidlow and Clough, whose efforts up front laid the platform for Bradford’s early control.

Moments later, Gaskell embarked on a searing break which saw him find Thomas before some last-ditch defending from Swinton kept the former London man at bay.

The Bulls remained largely dominant but in truth it was a scrappy, niggly affair at times with plenty of penalties conceded.

Nine minutes before the break, a brawl broke out off the ball which led to Addy and Josh Barlow being sinbinned for fighting, with Bradford being awarded a penalty following the incident.

More fine link-up play between Gaskell and Pitts gave Caro another run at the line before his progress was halted before Stuart Littler went close for Swinton at the other end.

As half-time approached, Clare was on hand again to support another attack inside the right channel, collecting a pass and again finding his way to the try-line.

Thomas, kicking left-footed, applied a superb touchline conversion to make it 20-0 at the break.

The procession continued with four tries in eight minutes after the break.

First, Thomas and Gaskell combined well again to work the ball across the face of the Swinton defence to Kris Welham, who waltzed over in the left corner.

Then Clare popped up again inside the left channel to scythe through the Swinton defence and supply Addy with a perfectly-timed offload to send the forward over the line.

It soon got better for Bradford as Danny Williams broke from inside his own half and a smart inside pass allowed Thomas to race clear from 40 metres out to score.

Tom Olbison then simply ran through the Lions’ rearguard, his momentum taking him over the line as he grounded the ball.

But Swinton refused to throw in the towel and they regained more than a semblance of respectability with two tries in three second-half minutes.

First, winger Liam Marshall collected Rhodri Lloyd’s pass to evade the challenges of Trueman and Blythe and cross in the left corner.

Some fine passing then led to Lloyd going clear and he touched down despite the desperate tackle from Trueman to bring him down.

The fact that Bradford are still conceding tries will be a concern to Smith.

Yet the attacking threat within the team soon became clear again when Clare again found himself leading the attack from full back.

He had Trueman in support to his right ten metres away but chose not to use him as Swinton survived before Gaskell collected possession on the next tackle and forced his way over from close range.

Both sides went close again, with Blythe failing to ground the ball after Williams found him in the right corner.

Nevertheless, a tenth Bradford try soon arrived when Caro plucked Gaskell’s kick out of the air and touched down in the left corner.