Bradford Bulls 40, St Helens 4; Nigel Askham reports from Odsal.

The Bulls won't have any problems grabbing the headlines today as they battered down the door to Old Trafford and left Saints gasping for breath.

Chairman Chris Caisley had claimed Matthew Elliott's men had not gained the credit they deserved for their efforts this season, but they must surely have won over more doubters with their most complete performance of the season.

They were sensational in the first half, and three tries in the opening ten minutes effectively settled the contest, giving the impression that they might have spent the last fortnight 'kicking the cat'.

Elated coach Elliott admitted: "The opportunity to put two weeks' preparation into this game really paid off, and hopefully we'll benefit from another week off," said Elliott.

"I'm really proud and pleased with my players, but I'm more pleased for the spectators that we could send them off in that way.

"Semi-final football is all about winning, and I don't mind whether it's by a thousand points or two," he said.

But while Elliott was obviously keen not to overdo the celebrations with the final hurdle still to come, it was the sort of display which will make them firm favourites for a second crown in three years - whoever they face on Saturday, October 9.

Their mood was such that it probably wouldn't have mattered who had stood before them last night, but they had the additional benefit of a helping hand from Saints winger Chris Smith, who did a pretty fair impression of Manchester United's Italian keeper Massimo Taibi.

Twice in the first five minutes he knocked on under pressure when fielding kicks near his own line, and each time the Bulls made him pay.

First Jimmy Lowes sent in Stuart Fielden with the Saints defence expecting the hooker to go for the line himself, and then Henry Paul fed the charging Scott Naylor, and the Bulls were 12 points to the good.

And Smith's nightmare was complete five minutes into the second period when Steve McNamara's high kick fell invitingly for the splendid Michael Withers and he skipped in down the blindside.

At that stage Saints could have been excused for being past caring, such was the Bulls dominance in all facets of the game as Saints' coach and former Odsal favourite Ellery Hanley admitted.

"If you let a class side like Bradford get that far ahead, you're always going to be struggling. They grew an extra arm and everything they did turned to gold."

At least his men did stick to their task defensively to restrict the Bulls to just one further try- a great 70-metre effort from Tevita Vaikona, who raced away from Paul Atcheson after Paul Deacon's quick thinking had set him clear.

But the way Saints scampered for the tunnel on the hooter spoke volumes.

They simply had no answer to the Bulls forward power which hit them early, with Paul Anderson and Fielden showing just why they should be on the plane Down Under with Great Britain next month.

Anderson was particularly impressive, and there was great work too from the tigerish back-row trio.

But if one man really summed up the mood on the night it was Scott Naylor, whose battle with Paul Newlove lived up to expectations.

The former Odsal centre did get outside the combative Naylor once to power in from 40 metres just before the break, but the former Salford man won the tussle hands down and clearly rattled the Great Britain ace.

Naylor capped a great night with his own first half try set up by Henry Paul, who ran him close for the man of the match award with another classy attacking effort allied to a tremendous defensive stint.

The Kiwi added the finishing touches after Naylor had cleverly hacked the ball when McNamara's kick to the corner caused more panic in Saints' ranks, and made it a double ten minutes later when he ghosted through in typical fashion.

A standing ovation was no more than the Bulls deserved at the break and, although their error rate increased in the second half, no-one was complaining as the fans thoughts turned to the Grand Final ticketing arrangements.

Defensively they were still going as strongly at the finish, and the way they scrambled back to cover for each other sums up the mood in the camp right now.

A repeat show in the final will make them pretty awesome opponents.

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