Sean Long: Featherstone Rovers ‘dodged a bullet’ in Bradford Bulls win

The win maintained Fev’s perfect start to the 2023 Championship season, but it was their sternest test to date against Bulls side who had recently ruined Toulouse’s own 100 per cent start last weekend.

Speaking to Viaplay after the game, Long said:

“I just thought we had no respect for the ball and we lacked a lot of composure with the ball. We tried to score on every tackle and every set. We just thought we could turn up and play.

“The lads dug deep but I think we dodged a bullet there if I am being honest. We were way off from where I want us to be.”

However, Long insisted the game - and performance - would be a ‘great learning day’ for his side.

“We just couldn’t deal with their kicks,” he said. “They were floating in the air and they were getting numbers around the ball and scored a couple of tries off kicks and scored off an offload.

“But I thought our defence was really resilient. It was good character building and we’re going to need it going forward. It’s a great learning day for us. You can always get something from a game and I thought that our lads will learn a lot from that, against a good Bradford team who kept coming and coming and coming at us.

“We just need to reign it in and realise that when it’s not going your way in those particular moments in the game, is go, ‘right, reign it in here, let’s get back to running hard, kicking long, chasing hard, getting back in for the grind, set for set, play the long game and then try and turn it around.’ But we kind of let them back into it every time we got the ball really.

“Going forwards in the future, we are going to take these learnings from it. The boys are not happy but they know what they did wrong. They came off the field knowing they weren’t at the races with the ball.

“I’m not happy but we are learning each week. There are teams during the season where we will come up against quality opposition, like a Touslouse, a Sheffield or a Widnes and that we will need that resilience in our dee.

“Then we can go, ‘hang on a minute, I remember that Bradford game where we kept dropping the ball or offloading,’ that’s when we can reset, reign it in and put it in the corners.

“It’s just going to be back to normal this week in training and working hard for each other.”