Lesley Vainikolo stole the limelight from Sean Long as reigning champions Bradford crushed a weakened St Helens side at Odsal last night to seal a second-placed finish in Super League.

Long produced an impressive performance on his return from a three-month ban but he was overshadowed by the rampaging Vainikolo, who grabbed his fifth hat-trick of the season to set a new Super League record of 36 tries.

The immensely-powerful Kiwi beat the mark set earlier this season by Leeds stand-off Danny McGuire to earn himself a £1,000 prize as the Super League's top try-scorer.

He was gifted his first score by centre partner Shontayne Hape, who unselfishly passed up the chance of a hat-trick, but there was no element of charity in the Volcano's next two, with his raw power proving too much to handle for a Saints side missing key players Paul Sculthorpe, Keiron Cunningham, Lee Gilmour, Jason Hooper and Darren Albert.

Saints were also without hard-nosed prop Nick Fozzard and their lightweight pack just couldn't live with the rampaging duo of Joe Vagana and Stuart Fielden in the early going.

The Bulls' forward dominance paid off out wide, with right winger Stuart Reardon also claiming a hat-trick to complement Vainiko-lo's. The Bulls' 11-try victory earns them a week off and a trip to Leeds in the qualifying semi-final, while defeat condemned Saints to fifth place and and an unenviable trip to arch-rivals Wigan next Saturday.

Saints didn't arrive at Odsal until 45 minutes before kick-off after a motorway hold-up and they quickly found themselves 10-0 down after Hape struck with two tries in the first eight minutes.

The former Junior Kiwi pounced on a loose ball after Vainikolo and Ade Gardner had contested Paul Deacon's bomb to open the scoring on four minutes and backed up a powerful run from Vainikolo to grab his second five minutes later.

With Vagana and Fielden tearing huge holes in the Saints defence, the Bulls threatened to run away with the game.

But Long, skippering Saints on his return from a three-month ban imposed for betting irregularities, inspired a fightback, helping lay on a try for John Stankevitch and kicking three goals to level the scores.

But Saints couldn't maintain the momentum and the Bulls hit them with a decisive three-try burst in the 12 minutes before the break.

Leon Pryce - who was outstanding throughout - conjured up a thrilling run down the right flank before supplying a lovely ball to send Reardon over for his first try, before a neat tap-pass by loose forward Logan Swann put Hape in the clear for what would have been his hat-trick.

But instead of touching down himself, Hape offloaded to Vainikolo for his fellow Kiwi to register his opening try.

Vainikolo had already demonstrated another side to his game with a couple of crunching tackles, but he will surely never score an easier try.

As the Bulls kept up the pressure, second rower Jamie Peacock forced his way over from short range for his side's fifth try in injury-time and Deacon kicked his fourth goal.

Whatever was said at half-time by Bulls coach Brian Noble, it wouldn't have been "go out there and let Saints back in it with a soft try in the first minute of this half". But that's what happened.

Long, showing no ill-effects from his lay-off, had been Saints' most effective player in the first half and he was prominent in the early stages of the second. It was his jinking run that allowed Paul Wellens to slide a prefect grubber through for Mike Bennett to score inside 60 seconds of the restart.

Saints showed just how dangerous they could be, playing some sensational ad-lib rugby off the back of some quick play-the-balls, while Long teased and probed throughout.

Bradford suffered a blow when Fielden took a heavy knock and had to be substituted but the Bulls extended their lead with two tries in three minutes, with Vainikolo and Reardon doubling their tally for the night. Mick Withers' suspiciously forward skip pass gave Vainikolo the space to get away down the touchline, while Harris and Pryce combined to send Reardon over in the opposite corner. Deacon's radar was by now well and truly functioning and he made light work of the two sideline conversions.

The Bulls' game-plan then seemed to revolve around getting Vainikolo over for the record-breaker and in the 58th minute he seized his opportunity, coming in off his wing and crashing over right between the posts for his 36th try of the campaign. That try took him past Rhinos stand-off Danny McGuire, who ended the season on 35 after being rested for the Rhinos match against London.

The final quarter had an air of an end-of-season match about it as both defences opened up with alarming ease.

Dom Feaunati and Ade Gardner grabbed consolation

tries for the visitors, while Reardon completed his hat-trick and Withers strolled down the right to cross before Deacon completed proceedings with a try under the posts and a simple conversion to record a 24-point haul.