Bradford Bulls 28, Catalan Dragons 34

If only Steve Menzies were still a Bull. ‘Beaver’ may be 38 but he still possesses the kind of class and composure any team would kill for.

While the Bulls spent much of the 80 minutes running around like headless chickens, Menzies calmly went about dismantling his former team.

A step here, an offload there, Menzies does all the little things well and has an innate match-winning quality that few of his peers can rival.

On this evidence, Bradford must regret letting him slip away so easily last winter. They could certainly do with a few more players of his quality.

Ball frequently slipped from grasp, tackles were too often missed and the structure that had stayed so rigid against Leeds fell completely apart.

Even the sending off of David Ferriol early in the second half, following a high tackle on James Donaldson, failed to help the Bulls. Instead, Catalan looked like the team with a man advantage.

All this after the Bulls had taken an early lead. Good work down the right created an opportunity on the opposite side and Olivier Elima hit the gap off Marc Herbert’s well-timed short ball, flattening Clint Greenshields en route to the line.

Patrick Ah Van converted – but the Bulls’ lead was swiftly slashed as they paid the price for falling asleep at a scrum.

Ben Jeffries conceded the knock-on after poking the ball out of Darryl Millard’s arms and the Dragons executed a well-rehearsed set play.

The ball went wide at pace and Greenshields looped right around Michael Platt to score without a hand being laid on him.

A response appeared to be in the offing when Ah Van’s restart was allowed to bounce into touch but a series of errors stopped either side from generating any kind of momentum.

When Catalan finally did break the cycle, they only did so thanks to a truly appalling decision from referee Phil Bentham as the Bulls were trying to escape their own end.

Gareth Raynor threw an offload which bounced and bobbled in front of Andy Lynch before he was able to gather. The prop briefly juggled before gaining control of the ball, yet Bentham decided he had seen a knock-on that certainly wasn’t evident on the video replays.

The Dragons made field position pay as Menzies used his dummy runner to create space for Jean-Philippe Baile, who in turn played Damien Blanch in at the corner. Scott Dureau’s failure to convert either of his side’s two tries was the one saving grace.

Bradford tightened up, cut down the errors and did a better job of playing Catalan down their end in the ten minutes leading up to half-time.

The crowd burst into life when Jeffries picked off a pass from Ian Henderson and raced down the right flank. But his decision to try and take Menzies on the outside was foolish and the legendary former Bull easily forced Jeffries into touch.

That opportunity provided a confidence boost though and the hosts began backing their own ability to play potent attacking football.

Brett Kearney broke a tackle to race down the left and Elima was unfortunate to see space closed down as he attempted to continue the move. Luckily, the Dragons were penalised for holding on and Ah Van stepped up to level the scores.

The Kiwi was called into action again two minutes later, kicking another penalty for a similar offence after Sebastien Martins had handed over possession.

Despite being outscored two tries to one, the Bulls took an unlikely lead into the break – but it did not last long following the resumption.

Although Dureau’s kick-off sailed straight out of bounds, the visitors forced themselves onto the front foot, mainly thanks to a forward pass from Jeffries.

Possession was used to good effect and Dureau too easily skipped through a couple of tackles deep in Bradford territory.

He was stopped short but sloppy marker defence allowed Sebastien Raguin to flop over on the next play. But, once more, the Dragons made a complete hash of the restart, Greenshields allowing it to bounce straight off him into the waiting arms of Danny Addy.

Frustrated by his team-mate’s failure to keep hold of possession, Ferriol took it out on Donaldson, almost knocking his head clean off with a disgraceful high tackle.

Bentham had no option other than to show the grizzled prop red and Ah Van dispatched the penalty goal.

Spurred on by their fans, the Bulls immediately looked to make numerical advantage count.

Addy was harshly denied a try by video referee Ian Smith when he attempted to go from dummy half but Tom Burgess scored less than a minute later, stretching to touch down his first Super League try from close range. This time the video referee had no complaints and Ah Van added the extras.

But rather than press home their advantage, the Bulls stumbled, simply unable to deal with a caution-to-the-wind approach from the Dragons’ 12 men.

Dreadful defence from Addy and Donaldson allowed Henderson to score another soft try from dummy half, before the brilliance of Menzies allowed the Dragons to creep in front.

A step and offload was all it took, Menzies starting a move that saw Lopini Paea combine with Greenshields to send in Dureau, who converted both tries.

It was game over when Remy Casty intercepted a poor pass from Jeffries and sent Blanch 40 metres to touch down between the posts, Dureau adding the extras.

Jeffries attempted to make amends, reviving faint hope when he took a pass from dummy half and sliced through on the angle to score, Ah Van converting.

But the final nail in the coffin was hammered emphatically home when Darryl Millard took advantage of yet more sloppy defensive work to burst clear and give Greenshields a stroll to the line.

Although the game was gone, the Bulls’ final try was their best. Quickly shifting the ball wide, they neatly created an opening on the left for Raynor, who chipped over Blanch, beat him for pace and touched down in the corner. It was just unfortunate that it came far too late.

Attendance: 12,670