Bradford Bulls 40, Hull 0 - The Bulls gave Stuart Spruce a send off to remember as they put Hull's Grand Final ambitions firmly into perspective.

The former Great Britain full-back waved his farewells after injury cruelly halted his top flight career and it might be goodbye for the visitors top-three chances too.

A week ago a win over Saints had raised hopes of a return to the glory days for Shaun McRae's men but the Bulls showed them just how much work they still have to do to reach the dizzy heights of the 1980's.

Hull stay third despite going down to their heaviest defeat of the season and being nilled for the first time but coach McRae could not hide his disappointment.

"They outmuscled us up front and we got a good lesson in a lot of facets of rugby league," he reflected. "That was as good a defensive performance from Bradford as I've seen this year. They certainly did a good job on Jason Smith. I was actually delighted at half-time because I thought we hung in very well but in the end we got what we deserved," he said.

There was certainly nothing wrong with their start and 0-0 isn't a scoreline we've seen that often after 15 minutes at Valley Parade this season.

But once the Bulls found their passing range and with Aussie loose forward Smith held well in check there was only ever going to be one winner. And it was nice to see Paul Deacon playing a leading role after being handed a rare starting chance.

The talented scrum-half has faced more frustration on the bench this season but his intentions were clear right from the outset.

Fittingly he broke the deadlock with a darting finish after a neat link between James Lowes and Mike Forshaw and more evidence of the great handling skills of Joe Vagana.

But his probing and astute kicking game allied to some excellent defence was warmly received by his army of admirers in the stands.

His display had the desired effect on the Paul brothers with Henry in control and Robbie leaping off the bench in the last quarter to help hammer the final nails into the Hull coffin.

Robbie's brilliant footwork was in evidence immediately as he danced through in great style from 35 metres with his first touch of the ball and he added a second as the Bulls hammered home their superiority with three tries in the last nine minutes. But Henry was still a clear man of the match with some silky touches including the pass which sent Graham Mackay powering over to help the Bulls towards a 12-0 interval lead.

He then struck the crucial blow within seconds of the re-start by combining with Paul Anderson neatly at a scrum and ghosting through in typical fashion as Hull anticpated a pass to the supporting Mick Withers.

There was no way back after that for Hull and it was rubbing it in somewhat when England scrum half Deacon was replaced by the mercurial Bulls skipper.

Apart from his two fine finishes he also sent Henry cruising through for his second after a neat link at a scrum.

All that remained then was to try to help Tevita Vaikona over for the ninth successive game and put him in the Super League record books but as hard as he and his colleagues tried it didn't quite come off.

There was one late possibility as Withers received the ball with the defence outnumbered on the right flank but his eye for an opening saw the full-back set the seal on a pretty impressive effort.

The pack set a great platform against pretty sizeable Hull opposition and the rest slotted into place although Noble must be a little concerned with their tendancy to over elbaorate.

But overall it was still a great way to respond to their JJB nightmare and with successive home derbies with Castleford and Leeds to follow they have a chance to stay ahead of the pack.