Would of never imagined they made more tackles than us.. probably cos they scored 4 trys with out being touched and scoring early in there sets. But in all honesty everything seems to be wrong on the pitch, im sure the players have the ability im confident in that, but the way and attitude there going about it is terrible.

On that, and regarding most if not all of the players, I fully agree.



Suspect confidence is pretty low right now. Probably desperate for a motivational leader who can make them start feeling good about themselves again.



If we are wrong, then we have a problem that I cannot see the solution to.

If Tuesday is their nandos night why not make it into an official bulls night out with all the lads going, if you win Hood gets the beers in

, if you lose in the fashion we have done, Tuesday night is hills night (running up and down them, not that MTV sh*te). Just little things to get a team mentality. They need to be playing rugby with their mates for good group cohesion, otherwise it’s just going to work with your colleges.

I feel this is the best response so far and the assessment of where we are is pretty spot on, imo.



I'm not sure about Leon though, particularly as skipper. As a stand off he's fine but whilst he can always pull off some pretty exciting plays, he's a not really a creative player in the sense of bringing out the best in others, though he might be a good player to work alongside Herbert which would leave Kearney free to take on his best position at the back. Leon does, and always has, had a habit of 'disappearing' during games too, not the best way for a captain to lead a team.



I've no problem with the type of player we could do with, though our biggest problem would be convincing a player of that standard that his future would be best served by him joining our club. I know we fans often think players (especially imports) are just after the money, but to be honest I don't think that's entirely true and that might be our biggest recruitment problem. There's certainly nothing to be lost in trying though.

I beg to differ.



All the anecdotal evidence is the Leon Pryce wants to play for the Bulls. He still lives up the road, attends Bulls matches when Saints aren't playing, and has apparently said that he wants to play for us.



I think it could be an inspired move to make him captain and, in effect, make the point that we are building our team around him. After all our lack of willingness to do that was a contributing factor in him leaving, I believe. By making him our 'main man' we might just give him the spur to really take on the leadership role that we so desperately need.

I think this has been covered below but they should have probably used some common sense and not mentioned Nando's tuesday this week. As mentioned they can't be banned from going out but tweeting about 'smashing a feed' or words to that effect are not clever

The accusation was made, more than once, though last season by players in the T&A, not by me, and followed performances similar to those seen this season. I know it can sometimes [ilook[/i as if players are not putting it all in, and appearances can be deceptive, and I'd always like to think they are busting a gut however wrong it's going - but it was worrying and sobering to read fellow players admitting as much.



There has been no such comment that I've seen this season, but there have been the Salford and Wire "efforts".



Wouldn't disagree with much of the rest of your post at all.

I would start by asking everyone to be more aggressive when defending.



Instead of allowing the opposition to run sideways across the pitch, they should all be moving up and meeting the attacking team.



Last couple of home games has shown the team to be sitting back and waiting for the attackers to meet them.



Every play should see the team meet the opposition at least 5 yards from where they started.



Moving up should stop teams catching us out wide, after 2 passes, we should be ready for contact.



Aggression is the key to confidence, and a good time to get in the opposition's faces will be against Halifax, then take the confidence into the next game (that's if they can match fax's forwards).



I think the lads will build confidence together in their defending (as they rightly did against castleford and catalan). It's a great feeling, knowing the team is dominating the collision.

In a convoluted way I'm going to say "dunno".



I feel really despondent at the moment. The reason for this isn't because we are losing or underperforming but because I can't think of any reason why it might be happening. I'm so completely bemused that I struggle to see where things may get better.



As Toya lisped, it's a mystery.

Do they get performance related pay? Maybe if they felt it in their pocket everytime they lost, they would be a bit more d.

Jeez what a sad life u must lead to read donaldson's twitter!

His nando's outings are his private business which are completely separate to bulls. U can't stop an office worker going to the chippy with a few pals after work can u?! Same as him he is doing this outside of the club's time

From my very limited experience of playing rugby I know how demoralising it can be when you're playing in a poor side without playmakers. As a runner you can try things but you need a playmaker to direct you. If it's someone doing that job who isn't up to it then attacking moves don't work and all the hard work done to get in a good position goes down the pan. When that happens enough times it really gets you down and when it happens needlessly from a daft mistake it can make you angry at your teammates or just feel like wondering why you bother. The same applies in defence. When you're struggling the talk tends to stop and without communication defence doesn't work.



I think the Bulls are in this situation. It's obvious than whenever any pressure is applied the heads go down and the players seem to collectively accept defeat as it's happened so many times. That losing run last year seemed to do untold damage IMO. As a result we're seeing a team that's resigned to losing before it's even made an effort to win like on Sunday.



So yes, I do think there's a lack of effort but it's down to an utter lack of confidence that players have in themselves and their teammates. Potter recognises the need to build a winning culture but I think he now knows it won't be done overnight.