Bradford Bulls game with Toulouse another huge encounter

BULLS head into arguably their biggest fixture since the 2015 Million Pound Game tomorrow, as a win over Toulouse would take them within 80 minutes of Super League.

With this season marking the last of automatic promotion and relegation from the Championship thanks to IMGs grading criteria, Bulls’ position as a worthy top-flight side would strengthen considerably if they were to make it in there on merit first.

It is coming up to a decade since Bradford last graced Super League, a depressing fact given the club’s successes in the 1990s and 2000s, but this is the closest they have been for eight years.

With Toulouse about to be added to this pantheon of huge occasions, we subjectively pick Bulls’ five biggest games since they suffered the dreaded drop in 2014.

5) Bulls 24 Leeds 22

This sixth round Challenge Cup clash in 2019 was arguably the most memorable occasion since Bulls’ relegation, as it showed they could give a genuine Super League side, and their most hated rivals lest we forget, a proper game in a top-level competition.

Tries from Dalton Grant, Jake Webster, Sam Hallas and Mikey Wood put them 22-14 ahead at the break, and dogged defending saw the Bulls hold on to reach the quarter-finals.

It surely gave Bulls hope that they could be back at the top table sooner rather than later, but inconsistency in the league has seen them continually fall short.

In essence, it was relatively meaningless given it was simply a cup shock, and Bulls lost in the next round to Halifax anyway, but it is a game anyone at Odsal or watching on television is unlikely to ever forget.

4) Batley 23 Bulls 10

2023 marks one of only three seasons where Bulls have reached the Championship play-offs since relegation, the second of those being in 2021.

As is the case this year, Featherstone and Toulouse were the favourites to go up, but for much of the season, Bulls had looked the best of the rest, and as capable of springing a shock over the two heavyweights as anyone, evidenced by a narrow defeat with a patched-up side against Fev at Odsal towards the back end of the campaign.

But an appalling end to the regular league season, which saw Bulls suffer three straight defeats, put John Kear’s side into a much trickier play-off quarter-final than necessary, on Batley’s infamous Mount Pleasant slope.

Bulls came up short against Batley in the play-off quarter-finals two years ago.

Though there was marked improvement from their woeful final-day collapse against Whitehaven, a lack of momentum cost them, as Batley deservedly claimed the spoils, and a campaign that promised so much ended with Bulls only having themselves to blame.

3) Bulls 27 Workington 8

Just four years after losing their place in the top flight, Bulls found themselves in the third tier, liquidated at the start of 2017 and relegated by the end of the season, having suffered a 12-point deduction and having lost 13 games out of 14 from April 14 to July 23.

Bulls were expected to breeze through League 1 though, and while there were big wins over the likes of now-defunct Hemel Stags and West Wales Crusaders, Kear’s side found a York City Knights shaped problem in the way.

James Ford’s men were magnificent all year, and with the two teams going toe-to-toe, it was likely any slip-ups against other opposition would prove costly.

So it proved, with Bradford’s two defeats to Leon Pryce’s Workington forcing them into the play-offs, with York going up as champions by two points.

Fortunately, Bulls gained revenge on the Cumbrians in the play-off final at Odsal, meaning they were finally on the rise in their attempts to get back to Super League.

2) Hull KR 54 Bulls 24

When Bradford Bulls were liquidated, following three administrations in four years, at the start of 2017, there were genuine concerns there would be no club left for the fans.

An agonising couple of weeks followed, before the club were reborn for a fourth time, on this occasion under businessmen Andrew Chalmers and Graham Lowe, and allowed to compete in the 2017 Championship, even if the caveat was that Bulls had to do so with that 12-point deduction.  

A team was thrown together at essentially two weeks’ notice, but remarkably, Bulls were ready to start the league season, a month and two days after the club had ceased to exist.

After two friendlies against Huddersfield and Cougars, Bradford even took the lead on the opening day of the Championship against eventual title winners Hull KR, before falling to a heavy loss.

Sam Hallas made his debut for Bulls in that game against Hull KR, and is about to return to the club for 2024.

But to even have a team playing competitive rugby, a month after the lowest point in the club’s history, was something to cherish.

1) Wakefield 24 Bulls 16

Sport is full of sliding doors moments, ifs and buts, and there is no doubt financial mistakes and mismanagement occurred for many years leading up to the 2017 liquidation, when Bulls were over £2m in debt.

But with the money available in Super League compared to the lower leagues, could Bulls have avoided that nadir less than 12 months after going down?

That near-decade in the wilderness was nearly reduced to just one year in October 2015.

Four teams went up to Super League back then, and the odds looked good for Bulls when they finished second in the regular season.

But they could only finish fifth in the subsequent Super League qualifiers, meaning they faced a Million Pound Game at Belle Vue against Wakefield.

Lee Gaskell started the 2015 Million Pound Game at stand-off for Bulls, and he is 80 minutes away from doing the same again eight years later.

The money and prestige of winning that fixture could have been seismic for Bulls, but they lost 24-16, and have never come close to reaching Super League since.