Ideal warm-up

Matthew Elliott was concerned his side had been having it too easy in the build-up to their Challenge Cup showdown with Warrington.

And while the two Super League points on the opening day were most welcome, perhaps more important was the way they came through a physically demanding encounter in, once again, far-from-ideal conditions.

The performance didn't mark too high for artistic merit but, learning from their mistakes at Wakefield, they tailored their approach and the outcome was a solid all-round effort and a near-faultless defensive display, which should stand them in good stead for the potentially bruising en-counter with the in-form Wolves.

It didn't begin that promisingly, with the Eagles dominating the early exchanges, boosted by a third-minute try from former Odsal favourite Dave Watson.

Mark Aston, who pulled the strings to great effect, did the damage with a neat grubber to the line, and the lack over cover was pretty alarming as Watson pounced on the rebound off a post.

But with Henry Paul driving the Bulls on, it wasn't long before the Eagles were under pressure.

In the absence of Paul Deacon and Steve McNamara, he set the ball rolling with a simple penalty after his own bomb created havoc.

Then a neat drop-off pass from the Kiwi stand-off saw Bernard Dwyer's determined run stopped just short, but Jimmy Lowes was on hand to spot the gap and plunge over from acting half-back.

However, despite edging ahead with the conversion, the Bulls were still struggling for momentum and leadership and, though they had a wealth of possession, they couldn't make another breakthrough before half-time.

Gradually, through the sheer persistence of tigerish second-row pair Mike Forshaw and Dwyer, they began to sicken off the Eagles

Forshaw quickly picked up the pace again in his first game back from close- season ankle surgery, and there were some good plunges too from Paul Anderson as the grinding process continued.

But it took the 52nd-minute sin-binning of Steve Molloy to finally break the visitors' resistance and, almost immediately, a sweeping crossfield move inspired by Robbie Paul ended with Danny Peacock feeding Nathan McAvoy for the swallow dive at the corner.

It was no more than the Bulls deserved, but, despite going close on occasions, they had to wait until ten minutes from time to make sure of the points.

And fittingly it was Henry Paul who came up with the important play, judging his kick to the corner perfectly on the sixth tackle, allowing Michael Withers to emphasise his opportunism and beat the cover to the touchdown.

And the young Aussie, who perhaps surprisingly found himself on the bench after a fine start to his Odsal career, could well have notched a second only to be obstructed as he hacked ahead Lowes' initial grubber.

Eagles frustration showed with Great Britain prop Dale Laughton taking it upon himself to settle some arguments in the closing moments, but the Bulls, whose discipline has shown a marked improvement, kept their cool to stay on course for a thoroughly professional victory.

Some firmer going under foot wouldn't go amiss after the slipping and sliding of the past fortnight, but there were still more positives than negatives ahead of the big cup-tie.

Notable among the positives was the performance of Peacock, who came stronger and stronger as the game went on and gave credence to the view that he may even have gained a yard of pace following his knee reconstruction.

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