A DEFIANT Sam Hallas insists Bulls have what it takes to win at Batley in Saturday’s Championship elimination play-off, despite the weekend humiliation against Whitehaven.

Bulls were 16-0 up against the Cumbrians at Odsal and cruising towards a home play-off after half an hour, but collapsed in the 15 minutes either side of the break and ended up losing 36-22 to finish fifth, meaning a trip to Mount Pleasant this weekend instead.

John Kear’s men were embarrassed on the opening day as well, losing 50-12 to Sheffield, but bounced back brilliantly to down a strong Halifax side 27-26 in their next match two weeks later.

And Hallas sees no reason why that can’t happen again, saying: “We know what we’re capable of.

“We can work on some individual things this week, but we have some really good players, who’ve done it in big games, so we know what they can show up.

“We can beat anyone on our day, we just all need to be singing off the same hymn sheet in these play-offs.

“The play-offs are only just getting started, and while Batley away is one of the toughest tests in the Championship, it’s knockout rugby and anything can happen, that goes for if we get through and end up at Toulouse or Featherstone as well.”

Asked if there was added spice with Saturday’s game being a West Yorkshire derby, Hallas said: “Batley will be fired up with it being a derby too, and it’s a big game for their club.

“It’s always tough against Batley, and it maybe means a bit more with it being a derby, but we’ve got to focus on the bigger picture.

“We have to play the game, not the occasion, because if we do the latter, that might be where we fall down.

“We just need to focus on winning, and only start enjoying the fact that we’ve done that in a derby after the game.”

Most people will probably make Batley favourites after Bulls’ capitulation against Whitehaven, with Hallas describing the team’s performance in the first 10 minutes of the second half at Odsal as “awful”.

That led to a tense encounter, with the Bulls players and their supporters getting more and more aggravated, and Hallas was at the heart of a few unseemly scraps.

He said: “There was a lot of frustration on my part, with the game not going our way, and I was probably losing my head more than I should have done.

“But I wear my heart on my sleeve. I’ll never change that, and I’ll always stand up for my teammates, like when George Flanagan got elbowed in the face and Jordan Lilley was getting punched on the floor on Sunday.

“I maybe need to be smarter with that, but I didn’t get a yellow or red card, so there was no harm done.”