Bulls skipper Robbie Paul is in confident mood on the eve of the club's biggest game in the Super League era insisting: "I just can't see us losing."

Ellery Hanley's St Helens, who handed the Bulls their biggest defeat of the season and have won two of their three clashes this term, arrive at Odsal on a real high after romping home against Leeds Rhinos in last week's play-off opener.

But the Kiwi counters: "When we lost at St Helens we had already clinched first place and that game wasn't going to change anything. We were still going to get the week off.

"Anybody who reads anything into that result would be pretty foolish because that wasn't the true Bulls team. We made about 20 errors.

"Saints had a lot to play for, pushing for second spot and home advantage in the play-offs. It was different the week before when we played Leeds in front of 24,000 people. You could tell then that we were up for it."

Now Paul believes the chance to book the first spot in the Grand Final at Old Trafford and the fear of losing their superb home record, dating back to last August, gives them all the motivation they require.

That 20-match winning seq-uence includes a 46-22 victory over Saints in June and the visitors haven't won at Odsal since the switch to summer rugby in 1996.

Paul said: "The call in the changing room before we go out onto the pitch is 'remember where we are. This is our place'

"You wouldn't let a stranger walk into your house and disrespect you. Nobody is going to come into our home and slap us in the face."

Many of the game's traditionalists have still to be won over by the new Australian method of determining the champions by a complex series of play-offs, but Paul has no such reservations.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.