Bulls extinguish Dragons' fire

Bradford Bulls took a step closer to their first Challenge Cup final for five years with an eight-try rout of Catalans Dragons.

The Bulls made last season's beaten finalists pay for the early sin-binning of full back Clint Greenshields, who was dismissed in the fifth minute for holding down opposite number Michael Platt.

By the time Greenshields returned from his enforced absence in the 15th minute, Bradford had run in four tries and Catalans were staring at a 24-0 deficit.

Semi Tadulala opened the floodgates with the first of his three tries almost immediately, with Sam Burgess and Dave Halley adding further scores before Tadulala claimed his second.

Paul Deacon was on target with all his conversion attempts and when Greenshields returned to the field it was in a somewhat sheepish fashion.

Pressure

The 26-year-old Australian, who has just signed a new three-year deal with the French club, quickly made amends though, claiming his side's first try in the 28th minute.

His score was quickly cancelled out when Deacon sent Chris Nero clear for Bradford's fifth shortly before the break.

Bradford claimed their sixth try immediately after the restart, Langley powering over the line from point-blank range, with Deacon tagging on the extras.

Seven minutes later and in went Bradford's seventh as Wayne Godwin's pass sent Shontayne Hape into the left corner, the unflappable Deacon again adding the extra points.

Despite the Bulls' complete dominance Catalans bravely attempted a fightback and after a period of sustained pressure Greenshields sent Dimitri Pelo over in the corner on 60 minutes.

Dominating

Thomas Bosc converted and Catalans began to look like a more potent force, dominating for much of the final quarter.

With 12 minutes left on the clock Julien Touxagas stepped through a gaping hole in the Bradford defence to score their third try and Bosc slotted the conversion.

Their efforts though, were to come to nought and when an audacious offload by David Solomona found Tadulala in the dying minutes, it was merely a formality for the Fijian winger to cruise over for his hat-trick.

Deacon, who had until now maintained a perfect goalkicking record was unable to add the extras, but that could hardly dampen the spirits of the Yorkshiremen as they move on into the last eight.