Bradford Bulls 54

Saints 8

BRIAN Noble's opening reflection 'We had prepared to fight George Foreman and got George Formby' came after his Bradford side had dished out an 11-try whipping to severely depleted Saints on Monday.

It was a light-hearted comment made by Bulls' coach during a tense post-match Press conference. Noble was clearly disappointed that one of Super League's supposed heavyweight clashes had been diluted into a mismatch, so under-strength was Saints' line-up.

It was left to a fired-up Saints coach Ian Millward to vehemently defend the selections. He was adamant the absentees were ruled out with injury which, he said, was a consequence of the battle with Wigan two days earlier and a tough opening to the season that has seen Saints play Super League opposition every week so far.

He was justified in pointing out the dismissal of Jon Wilkin, that meant Saints played with 12 men for 72 minutes, was a factor in the lop-sided nature of the game.

Whatever the reasons, though, there was disappointment among both sets of supporters leaving the ground.

Bradford fans, like Noble and his players, had wanted to square up to full strength Saints while supporters from St Helens had given up their Bank Holiday to travel to Odsal and witness an unrecognisable side take a pasting.

And with the controversy emanating from Saints' line-up it has detracted from the debuts made by five of Saints' Academy youngsters. With 11 missing from the side that faced Wigan, the teenagers were called into action along with four others, plus Maurie Fa'asavalu, who only have a handful of games between them. Martin Gleeson and Tim Jonkers also started following injury lay-offs.

They made a promising start, when after only two minutes Martin Gleeson ran in from two yards after a long pass by James Roby.

But two minutes later Radford strode through from 20 yards for a try that Paul Deacon goaled, and then Wilkin clobbered Deacon with a tackle that was late and high.

The scrum half was taken from the field on a stretcher but only after the red card had been shown to Wilkin.

The Bulls soon cut free. They used their big men to exploit spaces down the flanks and scored another five first half tries - two from Tevita Vaikona and one each for Lesley Vainikolo, Shontayne Hape and Jamie Langley.

And the Bulls ran in five more second half tries with Hape completing a hat-trick, Vainikolo scoring a second and Withers bagging a brace.

Winger Dom Feaunati did cross for a consolation score in the last minute but in truth many observers had lost attention by then.

Bradford: Withers; Vaikona, Johnson, Hape, Vainikolo; Pryce, Deacon; Vagana, Paul, Fielden, Radford, Peacock, Swann. Subs: Reardon, Parker, Langley, Anderson.

Saints: Hardman; Gardner, Gleeson, Wilkin, Feaunati; James Roby, Phil Anderton; Bibey, Bostock, Mason, Joynt, Jonkers, Fa'asavalu. Subs: Kenny, Graham, Mike Roby, Cook.

Attendance: 15,623