The apprentice takes on the master as Kurt Haggerty’s Bradford Bulls host Paul Rowley’s St Helens later today.
Haggerty, who is in his first head coach role of his career, worked with Rowley at Salford Red Devils for a number of seasons before the club were relegated from Super League last year.
Both have gone on to different things, but will cross paths again tonight, in what is only the second meeting between the two bosses.
The first saw Rowley take the win, doing so back in March with a 26-22 victory. Bradford could well have won that game, and many believe that they could pull off an upset victory today, given Saints’ injury concerns and poor showings as of late.
Haggerty spoke to the press earlier this week and was asked about both Saints and Rowley, and it’s fair to say he is expecting an extremely tough battle in the heat.
“Very good players, very good team,” Haggerty said. “I still think they’re in a transition of figuring out how they play and what the coach wants, and ultimately we’ve got to be at our best, complete high, and it takes intelligence in the cycle to try and beat them.”
Asked what his relationship with Rowley is now that the two have gone their own way, he said: “He’s got a new set of players, he’s got a new set of staff, I can see he’s playing a lot with some of the different things, and they’re a very good team.
“I know the detail Paul puts into his presentation, his game plan, so we always expect something a little bit different, but ultimately I don’t think a great deal will change with Paul. He’s very detailed and he’s a very good coach.
“We do [speak], probably not as much since I’ve started the job here, but we still speak every now and again.
“I’ll pick his brain and vice versa, he’ll give me a call, and it’s nice to see him when we meet up at games, we probably don’t speak as much as we should do.”
Super League standards slipping, Leeds’ latest signing, and the big England squad debate – Click here to watch the latest episode of the Serious About Rugby League Show
Bradford Bulls boss’ challenge to players in St Helens match
There has been two key areas of the game where Bradford have failed in over the past two weeks – completion.
Completing at 62% against Leigh Leopards and 69% against Catalans Dragons, stats like that hinder the Bulls and really limit their attacking chances.
Be it errors or penalties, Bradford need to reduce those negative aspects of their game, and if they do, they’ll be in with further chance of snatching a win.
Haggerty has set his side a task to complete at 80% or more, something that will be even more important to do given the scorching conditions at Odsal.
“I don’t think we played well at Catalans and with six minutes to go we were 28-20 and still in the game, so for as poorly as we played and the week before we’re still in the opportunity to win games,” Haggerty said.
“That’s why I keep speaking about we either fall off the cliff or climb the mountain, and we’re definitely climbing the mountain more than we’re falling.
“I don’t think anybody’s ever questioned the offensive attributes of our team, as in we know we can score points from anywhere on the field from any kind of shape or structure, so that’s never been an issue.
“It’s the consistency of staying in the cycle of a game, knowing that when you’re not scoring points you have respect for the ball, you turn it over on your terms and then you build the game through, that’s a process we’re learning and going through.”
Asked if it is as simple as completing at 80% of more and Bradford will win, Haggerty replied: “I think so, and so does the group, so ultimately for the last two weeks we’ve been around 65-70% and still scoring points, so once we actually start completing and respecting the ball a little bit more, it’ll keep us in games.
“It’ll take us to the back end of games, and we believe we’re fit enough to win games at the back end, so yeah if we can get up around 80-85% we believe we can win the majority of games we play.”
He continued: “My biggest frustration with the game was, it’s the first time my style in particular has looked a bit made up.
“We don’t play made up, everything’s very structured and processed, and you have the ability to play within the structures and systems to your strength as a player so I felt at the weekend my frustration was it was the first time it looked like we didn’t have a clear game plan of how we wanted to play, and it looked a little bit made up.
“I thought the game looked a bit like tick and pass, and that’s not how we play. We certainly never blur the lines of what our style looks like, we don’t make it up, and I felt like it looked a bit made up at the weekend.”
