Saints crush injury-hit Bulls

Bryn Hargreaves scored a hat-trick as St Helens claimed a 10th successive victory with a 58-20 hammering of injury-ravaged Bradford at Knowsley Road.

Bradford arrived without eight first-team regulars and on a three-match losing run.

But Steve McNamara's men competed gamely, in the first half in particular, and two early tries from winger Semi Tadulala and centre Paul Sykes put them 8-0 ahead.

The Bulls opened the scoring after seven minutes when Iestyn Harris fed Ben Jeffries, who in turn found Shontayne Hape and the Kiwi's neat short offload ushered Tadulala over the line in the left corner.

Burst

Harris could not convert from a difficult angle but six minutes later the Bulls again breached St Helens' line when Sykes burst through a gaping hole to touch down for a try he failed to convert.

Saints came back strongly in the 18th minute when Maurie Fa'asavalu crashed over the line and Sean Long added the extras for the first of his nine conversions.

Harris then bustled his way over in similar fashion for Bradford but well-taken scores from Wilkin, Ste Tyrer and James Graham in the space of 10 minutes put Saints in control at the break.

First Wilkin showed admirable pace to weave his way through the visiting defence and five minutes later Paul Sculthorpe sent Tyrer over in the right corner after Long's bomb caused panic in the Bradford backline.

Saints' dominance continued as half-time approached and Graham produced a powerful hand-off to create the space to cross the line from close range.

Long converted three of his side's four first-half tries to establish a 22-14 interval advantage.

In the 52nd minute the game was well and truly up for Bradford after former Bradford star Leon Pryce sold James Evans an outrageous dummy and raced clear before sending Jon Wilkin clear from 35 metres to claim his second.

Roared

The Bulls hit back two minutes later when Jeffries found space down the right flank and sent Dave Halley over in a corner for a try which Sykes converted.

Yet again, though, Saints roared back and on the hour mark Keiron Cunningham's delightful offload sent Bryn Hargreaves under the posts from close range.

Hargreaves quickly claimed his second and then James Roby and Pryce both had routine scores to pile the misery on Bradford, who were made to pay for the loss of second row forward Simon Finnigan to the sinbin.

Hargreaves had the final say with another close-range score to complete his treble and Long converted for his ninth goal, as Saints cut the deficit behind leaders Leeds to four points.