Dragons v Bulls: Teams

Vaccari: Injury absence

Catalan Dragons will be without the services of of Frederic Vaccari for the visit of Super League rivals Bradford on Monday.

Vaccari suffered an ankle injury during the 37-30 victory at Harlequins on Good Friday, and is replaced in the squad by the uncapped threequarter Mathias Pala.

Back rower Julien Touxagas is poised to make his first appearance of the season while stand-off Thomas Bosc is edging closer to his comeback following surgery on his kneecap and is named in the initial 19.

Bosc resumed full training almost a month ago and proved his fitness by playing for the reserves, but will not be rushed back by coach Trent Robinson.

"I'm not sure whether to make changes or not.," he said. "Scott (Dureau) and Ben (Farrar) have been doing a good job but Thomas is a special player.

Structure

"He's been preparing to play for the last two to three weeks without actually being ready.

"He's been getting used to the calls and the structure and I think he'll be ready to play on Monday or Saturday, depending on how a couple of players pull up."

Bradford coach Mick Potter will be without Brett Kearney and Tom Burgess following Thursday's home defeat to Leeds.

Kearney picked up a broken hand in the 30-22 loss while teenager Burgess suffered a knee injury.

They join long-term victims Danny Addy, Jamie Langley and Nick Scruton on the sidelines but Paul Sykes is recalled after being dropped while Ian Sibbit and Steve Crossley are also included.

James Donaldson is left out but 17-year-old back rower John Bateman has been added to the squad by the former Dragons boss, who admits it could be a bad time to face his old club.

"It was going to be difficult any way," said Potter. "They're a big team, a good team that is playing with confidence and will be playing in front of their home crowd.

"It's very hard to go over to France and bring back two points but it's all part of the challenge."

Catalan Dragons squad: Blanch, Farrar, Sa, Stacul, Bosc, Dureau, Touxagas, Henderson, Casty, Menzies, Raguin, Mounis, Baile, Simon, Martins, Fakir, Baitieri, Pelissier, Pala.

Bradford squad: Ainscough, Ah Van, Bateman, Crossley, Diskin, Elima, Hargreaves, Herbert, Kopczak, L'Estrange, Lynch, Olbison, Platt, Raynor, Walker, Royston, Sibbit, Sykes, Whitehead.