Nine-try Bulls thrash Tigers

Semi Tadulala touched down a hat-trick of tries as Bradford thrashed Super League's basement side Castleford 50-4 at the Grattan Odsal Stadium.

Steve McNamara's side ran in a total of nine tries during a one-sided clash which demonstrated that the Tigers might need rather more than the anticipated arrival of Dwain Chambers to avoid the wooden spoon.

The result was the Bulls' fourth win in five games and also lifts them up into fifth place in the Super League table.

Bradford led 22-4 at half time after a purple patch midway through the first half which saw them score three tries in 12 minutes.

Castleford never really recovered - the visitors connceding an offside penalty near their own line before Wayne Godwin darted over from dummy half for the Bulls' first try.

Nevertheless, they responded quickly with Luke Dorn, Brent Sherwin and Richard Owen spreading the ball to the right flank where substitute Adam Fletcher had enough pace to squeeze over ahead of Bradford's defence.

High point

Joe Westerman missed the extras to leave the Tigers trailing by two points but that was to prove the high point for Terry Matterson's side.

It was Bradford all the way from there on in, the floodgates opening when James Evans reacted quickest to Ben Jeffries' delicate chip to the corner.

Five minutes later, after Andy Lynch had picked up a loose ball and fed Paul Deacon, Tadulala claimed his first try since his move from Wakefield.

Deacon and Dave Halley then exploited another gap in the Tigers' defence to allow Paul Sykes the chance to touch down his sixth try of the season.

Tadulala grabbed his second two minutes into the second half by finishing a sweeping move started by Halley, before Jeffries carved his way through Castleford's static line.

Halley then had a try disallowed by referee Ben Thaler for a knock-on, but tries from Shontayne Hape and Chris Nero continued the one-way traffic.

And Tadulala's hat-trick was completed when he burst on to David Solomona's pass.