THE Bulls will be forced to work in small groups when they return to training next Thursday.

John Kear has confirmed that the players will do their fitness work from home for the next week.

And there will be strict measures put in place regarding numbers working together as they come back to Tong.

The Bulls coach said: “We’ve stood everybody down on the back of the information issued by the governing body on Tuesday.

CORONAVIRUS LATEST:

“Everybody is doing some work at home, either home circuits or running. We’ve obviously told them not to go to public gyms or else it defeats the object.

“We’ll recommence training in a week’s time but it will be in groups of five or less.”

Kear outlined the new approach in a meeting with the squad following the announcement that the rugby league season had been suspended in line with other sports as the coronavirus continues to sweep the country.

“The players are very understanding of the situation,” he added. “They realise it’s unprecedented.

“I have never lived through something like this and obviously neither have the players.

“We’ve just got to trust in the people in office and act upon their advice, so that hopefully everybody is safe and then obviously get ready for when we can recommence playing.

“It’s my understanding that reserve and academy fixtures will just be cancelled. But obviously they are looking to complete the Championship season.

“That’s common sense really and they could push it back as far as December and just have a very short pre-season.”

With players preparing to train in very small groups, Kear admits it will have more of a pre-season feel again with the emphasis on conditioning work in the gym.

“That’s one of the things the players aren’t very impressed about.

“They’ve just endured three months of really tough training and lately it’s been very much specific to opposition and our tactics.

“But now we’re going back in groups of five, you can’t do teamwork so they’ll be doing individual skills but mainly it will be conditioning with weights and running.

“I’m sure they will be very pleased with me but that’s what they’ll have to do.”

The Bulls’ games at Swinton, which was due to take place on Sunday, and Batley have been shelved while the season is locked down until at least April 3 – and likely to be longer.

It came at a time when Kear’s side were starting to hit their stride.

“The last three performances have been very good,” he said.

“The Oldham game got us on the horse, we were very strong against Sheffield and I think it’s been acknowledged how well we played at Wakefield.

“We had three performances that showed we are building something. We'll attempt to recreate that when we can start playing again.”