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| |  Monday, 4 February, 2002, 16:35 GMT Sinfield: Leeds feeling Bullish In the first of his 2002 columns for BBC Sport Online, Leeds Rhinos star Kevin Sinfield talks about the mouth-watering Challenge Cup clash with Bradford Bulls. I had a feeling we were going to get Bradford when there were still six teams left in the hat for the fourth round draw. It's obviously the toughest tie we could have got, especially now the Bulls have been crowned world club champions. They will be full of confidence and difficult to stop after their win over the Newcastle Knights. But we are excited about taking them on in their own back yard.
We can get our season off to a flying start if we can upset them and book a place in the fifth round. You can be sure that we will be putting everything into it. It helps that we have got a stronger squad than last year. Ben Walker, Matt Adamson, Willie Poching, Adrian Vowles and Wayne McDonald all add things to the team and have settled in well. Then again, everyone else's squad seem to have improved as well. Standards are increasing every year, but it is fair to say that we have got more strength in depth. Injuries play a big part in a season but we've got a lot of good youngsters coming through who can fill any gaps that crop up. The trip to South Africa helped blow a few cobwebs away after the winter break.
We bonded well and had some excellent training sessions. I'd be lying if I told you that we hadn't expected to beat Widnes. That does not mean we took the game lightly. We prepared for the game as we would any other and were in good shape mentally. But we didn't perform as well as we can and they made us pay. They probably had a point to prove, but Neil Kelly has go them playing some very good rugby and they deserved their win. It will be interesting to see how they shape up as 2002 unfolds. | |
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