ROSS Peltier has praised the Bulls fans ahead of Sunday's Kingstone Press Championship opener at Hull KR.

The 24-year-old admitted that the club's loyal fans are what keeps the players going through thick and thin, both on and off the field.

The prop, who was signed from Keighley Cougars last September, said: "It's good when fans are shouting your name, and that's what we do it for – it's even better for me because I'm a fan of the club.

"If it wasn't for them, then I don't think we'd be where we are now really.

"They have been amazing through this difficult period, and it is something that we all appreciate."

As for Sunday's seasonal opener at the Lightstream Stadium, Peltier isn't sugar coating the task.

The Bulls were beaten 25-24 by a late Matty Beharrell drop goal last Sunday in the Joe Phillips Memorial Trophy against Keighley Cougars at Cougar Park, and the performance highlighted their need for work in attack and defence and player recruitment.

Former Huddersfield Giants player Peltier, set to be one of the Bulls' key players this season, said of this weekend's match: "Everyone knows that it is a massive test. We know that we have a lot of work to do.

"Hull KR are going to be a lot more organised; they are going to be a lot stronger.

"It is great that the Bulls are producing talent, and it is good that they can stand up, but we need more experience.

"We know we've got a lot to work on, we must re-group, have no day off and assess where we went wrong and try to put things right."

Having only left Cougars a matter of months ago, Peltier said: "It was really nice to come back and see some old faces but it was disappointing how it ended because we threw it away in the last 20 minutes by not playing smart.

"When you lose against any team, it is disappointing from a personal pride point of view.

"We were daft at times and there were mistakes in game management, but Geoff Toovey (Bradford Bulls' coach in waiting) had only had two days to tell us things as we had last Friday off."