SOMETIMES you don't realise how much you are going to miss something until it is not there.

It is like that with Bradford Bulls and Leon Pryce.

With the 35-year-old in their team, the Bulls won four out of ten Kingstone Press Championship matches this season – at Swinton Lions and at home to Toulouse Olympique, Batley Bulldogs and Sheffield Eagles.

Although Jordan Lilley and Joe Keyes took on the play-making mantle, without the former England Schools' captain, they have won three out of 15, including the current Shield campaign.

How big a piece of the Bulls jigsaw their former England and Great Britain stand-off, who came off injured in the defeat to London Broncos in late May and subsequently announced his retirement due to a persistent knee injury, is beginning to dawn on Ross Peltier.

He said: "I am only just realising now how much we are missing Leon.

"He knew where to get us on the field, when to attack and when to square people up."

Bradford-born Pryce may not have had the last hurrah that he wanted with a club that is so close to his heart, after 91 tries in 204 appearances in his first golden stint there from 1998-2006, but it is a season that he, Peltier and the rest of the Bulls squad and staff will surely never forget.

"It has been a rollercoaster of emotions," admitted 24-year-old prop Peltier, who has been restricted to 14 appearances by a succession of setbacks.

"It has been an interesting one, but I have never picked up as many injuries in my career in one season.

"I have had a broken hand, injured ankle ligaments, injured a knee, and it is frustrating when you aren't there to help the team and be able to play as we haven't had a lot of players, but I have been able to cope with it mentally."

At least the Bulls are going into tomorrow's match at relegation-threatened Swinton Lions on a high after resilient defence brought them a 20-16 victory at Oldham last Sunday, with the Bulls having led 20-0 after 25 minutes courtesy of tries by Josh Rickett, Scott Moore, James Bentley and Cory Aston.

The third-from-bottom Lions are only a point better off than Oldham, so again the match at Heywood Road is critical to the Bulls' opponents.

However, Swinton were certainly in form when they faced the Bulls a month ago, with their 16-6 victory being their first triumph at Odsal since 1957.

And the Lions' agonising 32-30 defeat at Sheffield last weekend did not result in any major damage, ironically, thanks to the Bulls defeating relegation rivals Oldham.

Lions’ coach Stuart Littler is well aware of the threat posed by the Bulls.

He said: “A quick look at Bradford’s playing roster shows that they have a side filled with talented individuals all over the park.

"We will need everyone to be switched on for the full 80 minutes to earn a win.

"It’s only a few weeks since we won over at Odsal for the first time in many years, and a repeat performance in which we minimised errors is what we’ll need again.”

With Oldham facing a tough game at Batley Bulldogs tomorrow, the Lions will be hoping to open a three-point cushion ahead of the relegation spots.

Meanwhile, former Bulls player Scott Naylor is confident that Oldham can avoid the drop to League One if they can reach the level of performance that they produced in the final 50 minutes against the Bulls at Bower Fold last weekend.

Naylor said: "Am I still confident of survival? Yes.

"It's obviously going to come down to us and Swinton, there's no doubt about that. We've got to play Swinton at their place.

"Are our fixtures that bad? I personally don't think they are.

"We play Toulouse and Dewsbury here (Bower Fold) and we play Rochdale and Swinton away.

"If you look at the fixtures, do you target a game? No, you've got to play the next team that's on the list, which is Batley.

"I'm not stood here thinking, 'Oh my god, we're going down', I'm stood here pleased with the 50 minutes that happened against Bradford."