Could it get any worse than this?

12:54am Friday 21st March 2008

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Rhinos 44, Bulls 2

Not even the deadly duo of Steve Ganson and Ashley Klein could be blamed for this loss.

When the already depleted Bulls, missing six regulars, found out the pair were in charge at Headingley tonight, they must have feared the worst.

It was the first time the bungling refereeing pair had joined forces for a Bradford fixture since their almighty foul-up famously cost the Bulls victory against Leeds at Millennium Magic'.

But this time there was no such debacle and the officials did not have chance to ruin the affair; the Bulls did the job all by themselves.

A whole host of glaring errors, missed tackles and bad decisions combined to leave Steve McNamara's side on a real hiding from their arch-rivals, who ran in eight tries in a one-sided demolition.

Bulls skipper Paul Deacon opened the scoring on four minutes with a well-struck penalty but after that it was all downhill.

Bradford may have fancied their chances when, straight from the restart, Kylie Leuluai - one of Leeds' main go-forward players - was laid out trying to tackle Chris Feather. The Kiwi prop had to be stretchered off after a hefty knock to the head and lengthy treatment on the pitch.

Being a man light did not deter his team-mates though; Leeds were red-hot in the first half, grabbing five tries as they blew Bradford away.

The visitors could not cope with the pace at which the world club champions carried out their business.

Constantly gaining quick play-the-balls, the Rhinos ran riot with rampaging second-rower Jamie Jones-Buchanan in outstanding form, scoring once, setting up another for Lee Smith and generally storming around all over.

Kiwi full back Brent Webb crossed twice before the interval and there were further tries for Smith and Rob Burrow, as well as Jones-Buchanan.

Both sides had players missing, Leeds being without the crocked Danny McGuire, Clinton Toopi, Ryan Bailey, Ian Kirke, Carl Ablett and Ashley Gibson.

They welcomed back Matt Diskin from suspension and also Smith but the depleted Bulls had it tough, with key starters Joe Vagana, Glenn Morrison, Jamie Langley, Paul Sykes, Tame Tupou and Michael Platt all sitting in the stands following the injury crisis gripping Odsal.

How they missed them. McNamara had been scratching around for numbers and was left with his last remaining 17 fit players, Dave Halley coming in for a rare appearance and Craig Kopczak recalled from a loan spell at Halifax as 18th man.

Halley, 21, did excellently standing in at full back and showed real promise with a series of breaks, bringing the ball back well and causing Leeds plenty of problems.

But apart from the youngster, who has been desperate for a chance, Bradford posed little threat and some of the embarrassing blunders made along the way could haunt them until they get the chance to put it right on Easter Monday versus Harlequins - if there's anyone left standing!

For all Leeds were sizzling, they were helped along nicely by some awful play from McNamara's side, who continually coughed up possession in the first half, handing it on a plate to their neighbours.

Chris Feather and Matt Cook both spilled on the first tackle, David Solomona was brought back for a forward pass, most of Ben Jeffries' passes went to ground and mistakes inevitably resulted in tries being conceded.

Jones-Buchanan went over in the set after Solomona's mistake - although that was a dubious call - Webb cruised in for his first after Cook's error and Burrow sped in when Iestyn Harris's ill-advised offload was dropped by Deacon on his own 20.

But the handling mistakes did not just mean points on the board for Leeds, it meant the Bulls were constantly tackling and with that came tired legs.

Add in the fact that Bradford only had four days' recovery from their last match, with Leeds getting an extra two, and it was easy to see the game quickly sliding away.

Straight from the restart after Burrow's 37th-minute try, Gareth Ellis waltzed through Matt James's and then Chris Nero's attempted tackles to sprint 50 metres and put Webb in for his double, prompting chants of "easy, easy" from the Leeds fans.

Bradford, searching for a third successive win, had had a massive wind at their backs but they could not utilise it because they rarely reached the end of a set.

The second period did not start any better - Scott Donald racing in 80 metres after a Deacon grubber went straight to Luke Burgess, who provided the Aussie winger with a clean run home.

Bulls hooker Terry Newton was put on report for an off-the-ball charge on opposite number Diskin and it was probably wise that McNamara took the Great Britain rake off at the same time.

Bradford's ball control did improve though and they battled - in vain - to get some consolation scores.

Deacon thought he was over when he darted for the line but Burrow and Diskin somehow held him up when a try seemed certain. Semi Tadulala then looked destined to score in the left corner after good work by Solomona but Smith halted him with the aid of a high tackle.

Leeds' line defence was excellent, just as Bradford's had been in wins against Catalans and Warrington, and they held firm.

The Rhinos scrambled like they were holding on to a one-point lead, not cruising at 32-2, and typically - having survived that sustained period of pressure - broke clear to score again.

Jeffries did well to chase Smith back after he intercepted Solomona's pass but moments later livewire Burrow came up with some impish magic, stepping inside three helpless Bulls defenders before darting over the whitewash.

Amazingly, Bradford had up to 60 per cent of the possession in the second half but could not breach the Rhinos line and it was Webb who completed his hat-trick, and the scoring, 11 minutes from time.

Leeds star Jamie Peacock chose the eve of the game to reveal the real reason why he left Bradford after seven success-laden years, claiming it was their signing of Harris that led to a breakdown between the two parties.

This fixture rarely needs stoking up but extracts from Peacock's autobiography did just that.

He said he was left "hurt" by Bradford's lack of "loyalty" after they insisted there were no funds left to tie him to the deal he wanted after their 2003 treble-winning glory but later the club "miraculously" found a huge sum to bring Harris back from rugby union.

Peacock was at his towering best again tonight, while Harris came back in from the cold after being left out for the last two matches.

It was easy to see who was happier on this occasion though as the Bulls suffered their biggest losing margin against a Leeds side in the Super League era.

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