Halifax-born hooker Adam O’Brien feels form will go out of the window when Bradford Bulls take on his hometown club at the Summer Bash in Blackpool on Saturday (7.00pm).
O’Brien, who broke through into the Bulls’ first-team in 2011, will face Halifax for the third time in his career on Saturday.
The former England Academy player says the unique nature of Saturday night’s Bloomfield Road clash will mean recent league form will be irrelevant for both teams.
“I think everything will go out of the window on Saturday night,” he said.
“It’ll be down to the 80 minutes, and who can perform better. They gave us a good test on Good Friday at Odsal, but we managed to pull away in the last 20 minutes or so.
“We’ve got to train hard for the rest of the week to make sure that we’re ready for it. It should be a really good game which we’re all looking forward to.”
The Bulls, who were relegated from Super League last year, haven’t lost a league game since the opening weekend of the Kingstone Press Championship season.
Having featured in Magic Weekend fixtures for Bradford, O’Brien believes that the Summer Bash will be good for the sport.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to play in some Magic Weekend games and I always enjoyed them,” he said.
“The Summer Bash will be good for the game. We’ve seen how well it’s done in Super League to have every team play over one weekend at one venue. Hopefully the fans can get down there to make it an enjoyable weekend.”
