Bradford Bulls full back glad to find balance in game

As the pass was inches away from being intercepted by Swinton full back Dan Abram, it was a heart-in-the-mouth moment by the Bulls full back, who was a clear man of the match in Sunday’s 50-0 demolition of the Lions in their last regular season Betfred Championship game before Sunday afternoon’s play-off game against Featherstone, which is also at Odsal.

However, what transpired seconds later was a 100-metre dash by Lehmann, who shrugged off a defender near the halfway line for the pick of the Bulls nine tries.

The score was a sign that the confidence level of Holmes is back to where it was when Bradford signed him from Featherstone two years ago.

Holmes, who has had months of turmoil, what with his cancer diagnosis and subsequent recovery which caused him to miss the whole of the 2024 pre-season, said: “My pass to Max came off and if I see that something is on I will play it.

“I don’t want to be boring, I want to be exciting.

“Maybe it was a bit daft of me to throw that pass, but you can look at it both ways and one team was going to score from it.

“I chased Max all the way down the pitch and was in support just in case he got tackled, but credit to Max, we scored from it.”

Tom Holmes supporting Max Lehmann all the way on the Aussie's run to the try line on Sunday. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

Holmes added: “You back yourself, although there have been times when I have been under the pump and thrown some bad balls, but I am a confidence player.

“Possibly signing a one-year contract extension has helped my confidence, but it has taken a bit longer than I expected to get back to my best, though I am all right now.

“Maybe if you are not sure of your future, it does affect you, but over the last four or five weeks my confidence has gone through the roof compared to before.

“It is a big boost that I will be here next year too.

“I felt fine coming back into the team, though I had a couple of inconsistent performances and if we had had another full back fit and available, maybe I would have missed out on a couple of games.

Aidan McGowan spent most of the first half of this season as Bulls' full back, but he was recalled by parent club Huddersfield at the start of July. (Image: Tom Pearson.)

“I had a conversation with Freddie (head coach Eamon O’Carroll) where he said that I need to up my game.

“Since then, I have played some good rugby and am feeling well physically and mentally and am enjoying my rugby again.”

Holmes not only set up that Lehmann try, but also fielded every high ball that was kicked to him and made good yardage off many of them.

He said: “A few weeks ago fans were getting frustrated because I was dropping a few balls, and there was no-one more disappointed than myself.

“But over the last five weeks I have found some real consistency in that part of my game.

“I have put myself in the right place at the right time and am playing with a bit of confidence now.

“But the middles, such as Franklin (Pele), Ebon (Scurr) and Dan (Smith), are doing a great job, so it is not just me carrying the ball.”