Bottle jobs. 

Same old every year from Bradford. They talked it up at the beginning of the season that this competition is a must win. However, what we see time and time again is the soft underbelly of this team that cannot handle the moments when there is any form of pressure applied. 

We saved our worst performance of the season for the most important game of the season.

We just can’t win these big games and I’m really starting to wonder when the last time was that we actually did. Today was another example of being completely out-enthused, outplayed, and out-thought. We didn’t build pressure. We coughed up possession. We fell off tackles. We were lazy and cut corners. We couldn’t finish sets. It was a flat, frustrating, and frankly unacceptable performance.


The fans turned up in numbers, again, and were served up a performance that was well below par. York kept it simple, stuck to their structure, and never once looked like losing control, even when they went a man down. They showed heart. We didn’t. The better team won on the day.


Individual performances? Meadows has offered little this season. I wouldn’t be starting him next week if Keyes is fit. Waine over Mason made no sense. And Gill… after talking it up all week in the media, that left edge got absolutely torched. The try that York scored at the end of the first half was an embarrassment from a defensive perspective. Gill just got swotted away like a fly.


This was our biggest game in a long while, and we bottled it. Morale? I dread to think. I know teams don’t become bad overnight, but that was one of the worst performances we’ve put in and is a hammer blow after what has been a fairly decent opening to the season.

I think bottled it is a fair comment. Bitterly disappointing. 


Missed one on one tackles. Zero willingness to roll our sleeves up, go set for set and build pressure. We just seemed to be making it up as we went along. Once Lawrence and Donaldson went off, our defence parted like the red sea.  That left hand side needs addressing. 


As Doom said we seem to have a problem with these type of games. 


Congratulations to York and good luck in the final. 

I'm not sure it was the worst performance of the season - the Barrow/Toulouse games were far worse than today's.


We clearly didnt take our opportunities when we had momentum in the opening 25 minutes and in a few brief spells in the 2nd half. Some weak defensive efforts in isolated incidents just took the game too far away from our grasps.


When you miss two kickable conversions in a semi final you start to wonder if it will be our day. The Gill 'tackle' was all too familiar and I'm sure York will have highlighted him as a weak link to attack. I imagine York will go on and win fairly convincingly so it that respect it feels like we've blown an opportunity but let's be honest we didnt deserve to win that game. 


Still think we might need to add some quality to that squad if we want a chance of silverware at the end of the season.

I echo all the above. The only thing I would add is that our left edge should be Armitage/Taufua. Gill would be fighting for his place if Taufua was ready

Absolutely but we know Tafua isn't going to play every week due to injuries or suspension. We probably need another winger more than a centre. 


I also thought our pack struggled to punch through the York middles and it isn't the first time we've been outmuscled in the pack this year.