BRADFORD Bulls seem to be rising to the occasion of late, and were inspired rather than daunted by the occasion against York last Sunday, which could bode well for their seismic semi-final against Toulouse today.
A huge army of fans are backing the Bulls in the South of France, with interim head coach Lee Greenwood saying: “It’s a busy time out in France, with our game, football on all week, Catalans playing at home and the Rugby World Cup.
“For our fans to even get out there will have been a fair effort for them, in terms of both time and money.
“There’ll be many of them there, and they’ll know the challenge we’re facing, but with those going out there having done so well to do so, we’d like to reward them with an improved performance from the last time we faced Toulouse (a 52-14 away defeat)."
Greenwood has already spoken about the “magnitude” of today’s game, but he said: “I don’t think the players will be overawed by it.
“People on the outside can say what they need to but we’ve been building slowly week on week to get to the point where we can compete in these games.
“Three months ago, we didn’t play well here, but we said after the game we weren’t scared to go back.
“We knew then we could be a lot better and we feel even more like that now.
“The boys have prepared better for the challenges of going to Toulouse too, as that contributed to a poor performance last time.”
Bulls proved they could perform with the pressure on last weekend against York too, and Greenwood said: “We’d played in good atmospheres in the weeks before facing York, partly because of what we’d done on the field and partly because of the travelling fans.
“They were there in numbers then, as they were at home on Sunday.
“A lot of the lads won’t have played in that kind of atmosphere in front of a Bradford crowd like that and I hope Sunday night was a taste of things to come for next year at the club.”
Greenwood struggled to single out individuals for praise in the win over York, and needs to see the same levels again against Toulouse.
He said: “If you have a couple of lads off it, you’re going to struggle to win.
“We saw that last weekend and having had a run of playing teams of a similar standard to us, you’ve seen how you can’t get too much wrong.
“That steps up a bit in level again this Saturday and everyone needs to perform well.
“If we have one or two lads off it, it’s going to cost us, and we’re aiming for perfection out there, or something close to it.”
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