The Black and Whites go to Odsal on Sunday afternoon
Bradford Bulls’ head coach Kurt Haggerty
Bradford Bulls boss Kurt Haggerty expects to face a Hull FC side with a point to prove on Sunday following the Black and Whites disappointing loss to Toulouse Olympique a fortnight ago.
Andy Last’s side severely underwhelmed at the MKM Stadium last time out and they’ll be looking to right those wrongs at Odsal this weekend as they face Bradford for the second time this season.
FC edged past Bradford 27-20 in round one back in February, with the newly promoted outfit rocking Hull at the MKM Stadium, and Haggerty has spent some time this week reminding himself of that game.
But, he knows Hull will be determined to get back to winning ways as they strive to build some consistency in the Super League.
“I am,” Haggerty said when asked if he expected Hull to come out flying on Sunday. “We expect the best from every team that comes to Odsal.
“I think what we’ve found with the style of rugby we play, every team seems to work that little bit harder to stop what we’re trying to do.
“Ultimately, we play a brand of rugby that catches teams who don’t work hard off the ball so they’ll have the mentality of coming to work hard.
“I have [watched the round one game], but I’ve not overstudied it. Not a lot has changed apart from personnel, it’s more just scan over, see where we needed to be better in that game but not focus on it too much.”
Giving his verdict on the Black and Whites, Haggerty named James Bell as one of Hull’s chief threats, but it has since been confirmed that Bell has picked up a knee injury and won’t be involved.
“They’re a very good team and they have very good personnel,” he added. “The 13 in particular, James Bell, I think he’s a fantastic player, he brings their energy and he’s the point of difference in attack.
“They play a good style of rugby, they’ve got big strong outside backs who carry the ball strongly so we have to be good particularly in yardage defence and then we have to stop the ball play through Aidan Sezer.”