The Bulls had a long-range penalty shot after the bell to snatch the points, but it didn’t quite have the legs.

It was a bit of a rollercoaster in the final minutes with the Red Devils missing a penalty out in front with five minutes to go and then the Bulls having two unsuccessful penalty attempts.

They couldn’t have wished for a better start, with Gunnedah fumbling the kick-off and a couple of phases later outside centre Solomone Raura sending Dan Sweeney to the tryline.

From there, it was an even and willing tussle, the home side snaffling a 70m intercept runaway to claim the lead, before Sweeney produced a pin-point cross field kick to hit Kyle O’Connor on the fly to put the Bulls back in front.

They kicked further ahead with a penalty only to concede a try, and the lead, right on half-time.

Raura again made an early impact in the second half, this time setting up breakaway Lachlan Smith. Sweeney added a penalty not long after to push the Bulls out to a converted try lead, which they held until midway through the second half.

The draw wasn’t quite the result they were after but was the next best thing for what is a rebuilding side.

“We’ve had probably a 50-60 per cent change in playing roster from this year to last year. We’ve only got seven from last year’s first grade in the current side,” Bulls coach Dave Silversides said.

Several of those they have lost were club stalwarts.

“I was very happy with the performance,” he said.

“Certainly, for our first game, and away, a draw is not a bad outcome.”

He thought they performed well in most areas.

“I was very happy with the way the forwards and backs worked together,” he said.

“The combinations with a lot of new players to the club were good.”

The set pieces were a bit of a mixed bag. The lineout had its ups and downs, but the scrum was strong.

“We were competitive if not dominant in the first half,” Silversides said.

“I didn’t think we lost too much in the second half. We maintained parity.”

Defensively they were also very strong across the field.