Jamie Foster column

As always at Easter, it has been a hectic few days leading up to tonight’s big derby against Leeds at Headingley.

We flew home from Catalan late on Sunday, had a day off on Monday and had a bit of run on Tuesday. We then had our team run on Wednesday and are straight back into match action tonight.

It doesn’t get any easier and, with Leeds having their game against Wakefield called off at the weekend, they’re going to be firing.

It promises to be tough but we’re mentally ready for it and fully prepared physically too.

As I said earlier in the week, I have experienced the St Helens-Wigan and Hull derbies, so it will be great to add the Leeds-Bradford fixture to my CV. There is no doubting it is a massive rivalry.

We played the Rhinos in Danny McGuire’s testimonial at Headingley during pre-season but the result, a 24-24 draw, was essentially meaningless. It was a very good performance that day and we were unlucky not to win.

We couldn’t hold on to the lead and it’s happened a couple of times during the season as well. It happened at Widnes and again on Saturday in Perpignan, so it’s something we need to work on.

Against Catalan we started really well in the first half but you’ve got to play for 80 minutes. You don’t win Super League games playing for 40 minutes. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you that and it’s something we’ve worked on this week.

A big thing in the build-up to tonight’s game has been treating our injuries. I took a knock to my ankle and a few other players are carrying bumps and bruises but hopefully I’ll be passed fit to play.

I hate sitting on the sidelines and am the kind of player who wants to be involved week in and week out.

As players, we know the significance of tonight’s game and I’m sure the Bulls fans will turn out in massive numbers again. Hopefully we can deliver the right result for them.