Bradford Bulls confident but wary of Whitehaven warriors

But he knows his side are going up against a team “fighting for their existence” who are “playing for more than just rugby”.

The Cumbrians’ financial issues are well-documented and they only just survived going bust at the end of last season, but they have done themselves proud on the field, winning seven games this year already.

Whitehaven have won seven of their 17 league games since losing to Bulls at Odsal on the opening day. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

They are desperate for a bumper crowd, boosted by ardent Bulls fans, at the LEL Arena this weekend to help boost the coffers, and Greenwood admitted the whole mood around the club could make them a danger.

He said: “We know they’re a team fighting for their lives and existence and their players are playing for more than just rugby at the moment.

“They’re struggling to be paid, but there’ll still be 17 proud lads out there for them, and we go up there expecting the best of Whitehaven.”

But Greenwood is backing his Bradford side to get the job done, saying: “We’re confident for Whitehaven, as it doesn’t take a brain surgeon to see what went wrong on Monday against Widnes.

“It’s straightforward and there doesn’t need to be too much technical analysis, because we just have to cut out the errors, stick to the rules of the game, and not drop the ball.

It was a bit of a personal ordeal for Ben Blackmore on Monday night. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

“I believe we’d have beaten Widnes had we just done those basics right.

“We have to learn our lessons from those mistakes and get back to it, the same as every week, and do things better than we did last week.

“We’ll select the 17 we think is best to get the job done and we’ll obviously have a look at Whitehaven, but we can’t control anything about them until kick-off.”

While Greenwood admitted there was introspection to be had after the 31-14 defeat at the Vikings on Monday night, he doesn’t feel there needs to be an over-reaction, saying: “Myself and Brian have watched the game back and it didn’t get any better on a second viewing.

“It was a really poor performance from a lot of individuals and we got what we deserved.

“We all take responsibility for it, including Brian and I, but since the two of us took over, that’s the first time we’ve been poor throughout a game, and there’s plenty of occasions where we have played well.

“We need to see a reaction so what happened on Monday doesn’t happen again, but we’ve been good at that whenever our levels have dipped since Brian and I took charge.

“I know people like to sensationalise, but ultimately it was a defeat by a few scores to a desperate team.”