Pretty ugly from Bulls

Beforehand, both coaches of Super League's only remaining unbeaten teams admitted their sides had been winning ugly without fully firing.

Both hoped to see their men rediscover some panache last night. By the end of a compelling tussle, Daniel Anderson's mob were the ones playing pretty and sitting pretty at the top of the table.

The Bulls were left looking in the mirror and won't have liked what stared back at them.

Granted, they had their best completion rate of the season at an astonishing 92 per cent.

But if you don't construct anything with the ball such statistics mean nothing.

The Bulls lost Iestyn Harris to a suspected broken arm after 29 minutes and without their chief playmaker not only were they unable to win ugly, they were distinctly unattractive in losing.

Lacking ideas and adventure, the champions plodded away in a second half which Saints - with Keiron Cunningham and Sean Long pulling the strings - completely dictated, finally delivering the silky finish they had been searching for for so long.

The hosts finished with seven tries and it could have been more as the Bulls got completely out-manoeuvred.

If you concede nine penalties in the first half, eight on the bounce, you are asking for a bashing.

As it was, the points avalanche did not come when the Bulls' discipline was imploding before the break, it materialised afterwards, and the visitors had no answer.

They weren't helped with Paul Johnson having also retired hurt but there could be no excuses.

The game had seen the much-publicised match-up of former Bull Leon Pryce lining up for the first time since his move against the man who denied him the stand-off role at Bradford - Iestyn Harris.

As it turned out, that duel was finished before it had really begun.

Pryce had to revert to full back when Paul Wellens departed with a swollen eye socket and then Harris got substituted with his worrying injury.

But there was plenty of other contests elsewhere on the field and the game was finely balanced at the break, Saints just ahead 16-12.

The Bulls had taken the lead through Ben Harris on six minutes after Francis Meli had failed to deal with a Paul Deacon bomb.

But after a penalty gifted Saints field position - that would become a common thread - the hosts struck back with Meli's first try after some great hands by Willie Talau down the left.

Then the Bulls' indiscipline cost them massively during a chaotic passage of play midway through the first half.

In all they conceded eight consecutive penalties to invite a barrage of Saints pressure.

And they couldn't blame referee Ashley Klein.

One came after Sean Long's try when Paul Deacon booted the restart dead. Another came soon after following Leon Pryce's touchdown when the scrum half again booted the restart dead. Deacon couldn't believe he had committed the cardinal sin twice. Neither could anyone in the 12,352 crowd, the only plausible reason being a strong wind gusting through Knowsley Road.

Importantly, the Bulls won the next penalty when Jason Hooper charged late on Deacon after the Great Britain man had kicked forward. It was the fourth time the New Zealander had targeted Deacon in such a manner and a touch judge finally took note, Klein then producing a yellow card.

The visitors proved they too could make the most of piggy-backs by going over in the ensuing set.

Stanley Gene delivered a long pass to Deacon and Hape sped on to his drop-off at pace, slipping off James Graham's attempted tackle and then charging through Pryce to get to the line.

The champions needed the score and they headed into the break lifted.

But then came the carnage.

Long caused all sorts of problems with his kicking and the Bulls simply could not get out of their own half as the home side defended stoutly to pin them back.

Without Harris to guide them around the field, the Bulls resorted to aimless one-man rugby and Saints just mopped it up, proving dominant in the tackle to leave their opponents constantly on the back foot.

Then they struck with centres Jamie Lyon and Talau enjoying running onto plenty of top service as the title pretenders demonstrated some razor-sharp finishing.

Ade Gardner got that all-important first score in bizarre circumstances - while laying on his back.

The winger had challenged Lesley Vainikolo for a high kick, slightly palmed it back, landed on the ground and then saw the ball fall in his hands, meaning all he had to do was turn over to place it down.

From the restart, Cunningham put Pryce racing through a hole in centre-field and the former Bull sprinted clear before sending Long in under the posts.

However, in his delight, the scrum half inexcusably dived early and coughed up the ball as he hit the ground inches short of the line with no one near.

The incident was well spotted by Klein, who asked for a second opinion, and video ref Steve Presley agreed with the official to leave Long massively embarrassed.

He didn't show it mind. His perfect 40/20 got Saints quickly back in the Bulls' red zone and Cunningham barrelled over from dummy half.

The Bulls struggled to get out of their own half and when they did, they let Saints hit straight back, Jon Wilkin getting on the outside of Gene to break free and send the

supporting Meli accelerating in for a sweeping try.

Gardner got his second courtesy of an exquisite flick pass from Lyon, although the Bulls finished the scoring when Hape and Vainikolo delivered a rare moment of magic at a scrum, Hape running around his Kiwi team-mate before taking a fine pass and diving in at the corner.