It has never been a case of us not trying (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

It has never been a case of us not trying

10:29pm Thursday 2nd June 2011 in Bulls By Jamie Langley

Jamie Langley column: Last week we finally played like a team with belief in its own ability.

We’ve struggled for confidence at times this year but the win against Salford has given us a massive boost.

It started the previous week against Wigan. Although we lost, that game showed us something we were maybe struggling to believe – that we can compete with the top teams in the competition.

Fans have been frustrated with us and the players have sometimes been accused of a lack of effort but that’s never been the case. Body language can often be misleading and when heads go down and shoulders slump when you’ve conceded a try, it can be confused with not trying.

It’s really a confidence issue and it was really pleasing to see the lads play with belief against Salford. Even when they came back into it and scored a couple of tries, the thinking was ‘not to worry, we’ll still win this one’.

Nobody panicked and nobody lost belief and we probably should’ve won by a bigger margin. From speaking to a few Salford lads after the game, they certainly felt like they had been soundly beaten.

This week brings its own challenges. Quins may be struggling but we have to cope with the break from routine that travelling to London brings.

You have to make sure you concentrate on all the little things, like diet and rest, so you don’t veer too much from your normal schedule.

Last year’s game down there was awful. It was a tough evening because it was 20-odd degrees and they just played the conditions better than we did.

That was also Steve Mac’s last game in charge, so it isn’t a fond memory at all.

That said, this is a new year with new challenges and we’ll go down there confident of picking up another two points. We can’t afford too many more slip-ups this season.