THE Bulls have only themselves to blame after losing their home opener, admitted Leigh Beattie.

Promoted Rochdale maintained their perfect start with a 22-14 victory at a wintry Odsal yesterday.

That leaves the Bulls still looking to make a dent into the 12-point deduction they were handed for the start of the Championship campaign.

Beattie felt there was a self-inflicted air about the result after the home side committed a string of handling mistakes.

The acting coach said: “You can’t make so many errors and win a ball game. The lads all know that it’s not good enough.

“We started well but then we coughed up the ball four times and they got a try on the back of that. There were just too many errors.

“We dropped the ball too much and 15 (handling) errors is not going to win a game, simple as that.”

Oscar Thomas, who again played at full back, had the Bulls on the board within two minutes on a surface made very difficult by persistent snow leading up to kick-off.

They also led 12-8 at the break when Rochdale were reduced to 12 men. But Beattie felt the mistakes were creeping into their game at that stage.

“That’s when we started to make the errors just before half-time,” he added. “I’m not going to make excuses.

“The conditions were atrocious but that’s the same for Rochdale as well.

“The players aren’t going to give in. I don’t know a side who does give in who plays rugby league.

“You can see the enthusiasm is there. But you cannot make those errors – it gets you in the end.”

Rochdale’s victory was their first at Odsal since 1971. They have been tipped to struggle after winning promotion but hammered Dewsbury 46-0 on the opening weekend.

Beattie said: “They’ve come up and you can see they are a good side. They showed that last week.

“We’ve got to show people respect but we can’t make so many errors. We’ve got to be better.”

Jon Magrin and Ethan Ryan picked up knocks but Beattie said there were no injury concerns.