Bradford Bulls will be grateful of next weekend's break for the Challenge Cup final as their injury jinxed squad prepare for a showdown with title rivals St Helens on Sunday week.

Skipper Graeme Bradley is already struggling with a broken nose and they are now anxiously awaiting news on props Brian McDermott and Tahi Reihana as their third win in four Super League outings - 26-24 at Hull yesterday - came at a price.

McDermott suffered a recurrence of the chest injury which has already kept him out this season while Kiwi Reihana is having checks on a shoulder.

"We were in the wars again and I also have a couple of players suffering from concussion and an eye cut," explained coach Matthew Elliott.

The Bulls boss will be hoping both are available for the Saints clash as the loss of Paul Anderson for the entire season with a knee injury has left them short of cover in the front-row.

The champions stay in fourth spot after yesterday's narrow success when they were again well short of their best but Elliott paid tribute to the effort from the Sharks on their return to the big time.

"You never heard me say they were going to finish adrift. They have got too many quality players to end up bottom of the competition and I think they will shock a few people here. If they can get that sort of support every week a lot of sides will not relish coming here.

"I t was certainly our toughest game so far because we played dumb against Leeds. We didn't today."

But Elliott still feels there is plenty of scope for improvement from his men.

"We certainly could have done it a little more comfortably than we did. I couldn't fault us for effort but we had some key players missing today and I am quite certain we can rectify our poor execution."

Elliott was also happy to have James Lowes back in the ranks after missing the first three games with knee trouble.

"He went well for the first 30 minutes and 20 minutes in the second half but then took a whack in the mouth. He was short of a run but he does a lot for us from acting half-back and the quality of service from there was a lot better and that is no disrespect to Bernard Dwyer who has not played there for a while."

Hull coach Peter Walsh was highly critical of some rulings from referee Stuart Cummings which he claimed had cost his side the chance of victory.

The Sharks complained that the final pass was forward for Tevita Vaikona's first half score and Danny Peacock's second after the break.

Walsh hit out: "Unfortunately the referee was not getting himself in position to do anything about it and I would like to see the linesman wired up so they can help out."

And he pointed the finger at Peacock for starting the scuffle which led to the Aussie centre and the Sharks Kiwi loose forward Brad Hepi being sin-binned close to the hour.

"Brad was elbowed in the face yet both players get ten minutes. It was also a critical ruling because it was on the sixth tackle and we would have had the ball back. Instead we are penalised and they ended up scoring their final try from it."

The Bulls' Academy side were given a lesson by a quick moving Hull side, going down 46-6 in the curtain-raiser. Craig Pearson got their only try with Paul Sykes adding a goal.

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