There are plenty of ways to get your team fired up before a big game, but until now "letting a bull run free on the field as the players warm up" hasn't been a tactic widely used.
Catalans Dragons players were going through their pre-game drills ahead of their home clash with reigning Super League champions St Helens overnight when a bull broke free of its handler and charged down the Stade Gilbert Brutus field.
The bull — which was inexplicably being led around the field with several of its mates to highlight the quality of beef in the Pyrénées-Orientales region of France — made a Greg Inglis-like run down the field, as Dragons players weaved out of the way, jumping into the crowd to get away from the rampaging bovine.
Clearly spooked by the massive crowd and the idea that it was being paraded as a meat product, the horned-beast made its way into the in-goal area before eventually slowing down, allowing its handlers to regain control.
Catalans owner, Bernard Guasch, is a former player and owner of a local meat-processing plant, and it was his idea to allow the bulls onto the field before the match.
His team would go on to win, 24-12, to break a three-game winless streak.
There has been no confirmation as to whether they will let another bull charge at their players pre-game next week, given the positive result.
Both the bull and the players were unhurt in the incident.
ABC
