Rampant Bulls back on top

Henry Paul: Deadly accurate with his place shots

Leeds 2-44 Bradford

Bradford Bulls ripped apart their deadliest rivals in a repeat of their Challenge Cup final victory to return to the top of the Super League table.

The rampant Bulls stunned the 18,769 Headingley crowd as they extended their unbeaten run to 15 matches to leapfrog Wigan and St Helens.

In what turned out to be a landmark game, Leeds skipper Iestyn Harris scored his 1,000th point for the Rhinos with a 25th-minute penalty to become only the 10th player in the history of the club to reach four figures.

But that was where the good news ended for the home side who were comprehensively beaten.

Pressure

The Bulls had already established a 14-0 lead by then as the game went uncannily according to the Murrayfield script and they went on to soak up a tremendous amount of pressure before cantering to victory with the aid of four tries in the last quarter.

Iestyn Harris: 1000 points

Henry Paul, who earned the Lance Todd Trophy at Murrayfield largely for his tactical kicking, was less influential but was deadly accurate with his place shots, putting over all seven conversions and a penalty.

Leeds had no shortage of possession and created a series of half-chances, but Bradford demonstrated just why they have the best defence in Super League as they kept their line intact with some terrific tackling.

Even the temporary loss of Brad Mackay, despatched to the sin bin for laying-on in the tackle, failed to un-nerve Bradford, who fully deserve their title favouritism on this impressive show.

Pace

Bradford had earlier turned on the pace and power to open the scoring, with in-form centre Scott Naylor taking a reverse pass from Robbie Paul deep inside his own half and bumping off the attempted tackles of McDermott and Ryan Sheridan to send winger Nathan McAvoy over.

And after soaking up the best Leeds had to offer they cut loose in a devastating final 20 minutes to rub salt into the Rhinos' wounds.

Robbie Paul side-stepped past Francis Cummins, who had switched to full-back to enable Harris to lead the attack, for his 75th try for Bradford and Spruce added his second after a neat offload from David Boyle.

It got worse for Leeds when left winger Leon Pryce finished off a break from Justin Brooker to touch down and former Leeds favourite James Lowes took advantage of a defensive blunder to grab his side's seventh try.

Leeds coach Dean Lance paid tribute to Bradford Bulls after watching his side's defeat.

"They are where they belong," admitted Lance. "We were outplayed by the better team on the night. They proved they are the best team in the competition at this stage.

"It wasn't a great performance by us but there was plenty of effort and I don't think the scoreline was a true indication of the game.

"What was disappointing was that we stood back and watched them play. We ball-watched the Paul brothers."