NEW dad Colton Roche has offered some fatherly advice to the Bulls ahead of their key clash with Swinton: “We must smarten up.”

Roche is learning to divide his time between the team’s fight for Championship survival and parenting duties at home.

Partner Hannah gave birth to son Elijah eight days ago and the forward has already noticed that life will never be the same again.

But fatherhood will not affect his focus on the field – and his desire to help the Bulls to victory at Odsal tomorrow over the side ten points ahead of them.

Roche, like all new parents, knows that patience is the key.

He said: “Everyone can tell that we’re not making the right decisions when we get into the opposition half. We’re coming up with a lot of errors because we’re chasing points.

“We know we can put the plays on but you see the best teams in Super League and the NRL won’t necessarily score straight away. They’ll just keep on plodding away until they get that break.

“But we’re trying to force it a little bit too early and that catches up with you at the back end of the game.”

Last week’s 23-16 loss at Batley was a case in point, blowing the chance with some head-strong attacking plays when only a second away win of the season was beckoning.

“We had them on the rack a couple of times and just made the wrong decision,” admitted Roche. “That’s something we’ve been doing over the past few weeks and we really need to get right.

“We speak about it every week. But then you play the games in front of the fans and you want them to experience some tries and get on their side.

“It can be pretty difficult and we know a lot of the time we are forcing errors because we’re throwing that long ball when it’s just not on or sometimes we’re kicking too heavy.

“It’s about putting our enthusiasm in the right place, being a bit patient and not letting pressure get to us. It’s something we’ve been working on in training all this week.”

Roche believes Elijah’s arrival has given him a fresh impetus for his rugby because he can now go home to get away from it all.

“Having a child has changed my life a little bit, although nothing has affected training or the way I perform.

“The club were good enough to give me a couple of days off last week to enjoy my time. Then I was back in on Saturday morning and played Sunday.

“It’s just about adjusting to things now and seeing how much I can sleep. You have two hours, then get up to help the missus out – keep her happy and everything is easier.

“I’ve been on bottle duty and I think he prefers me to do it. It’s great and I’m thankful for the club to give me that time off before I got straight back into it.

“It’s been a tough season and the time before we started was hard as well. For me personally, this has been the highlight of my year.

“It is nice to train and then go home to him and my partner and take your mind off things. You find you’re working even harder at training because you know you’ve got that freshness afterwards.”