Rugby

City Reds winger Mark Henry’s first engage Super League hat-trick was in vain as the Bulls cruised to their first win in seven league matches to leapfrog their opponents in the table with a 28 - 14 victory at Odsal Stadium, Bradford .

Half-backs Ben Jeffries and Kyle Briggs were the architects of the Bulls’ much-needed victory, scoring three of their side’s five tries between them, as the Yorkshiremen gained revenge for last month’s 56-16 mauling at the Willows.

The Reds are now in the bottom four after going down to a fourth defeat in five league matches.

Bradford had first use of a stiff breeze which enabled them to establish a 22-4 half-time lead and effectively end the game as a contest.

It was pretty straightforward from the moment second rower Olivier Elima sent full-back Shad Royston through a gap in the visitors’ defence and scrum-half Briggs was in support to score the first try after only five minutes.

A superb offload from centre Sean Gleeson got Henry over for his first try on a rare Salford foray into the Bulls 20-metre area, but the Bulls seized a firm grip on the contest with three tries in a purple patch in 10 minutes before half-time.

Paul Sykes went over unopposed at the corner after taking Jeffries’ cut-out pass, replacement hooker Heath L’Estrange burrowed his way over from dummy half after first forcing a goal-line drop-out and prop Craig Kopczak broke through a soft first line of defence for the ever available Royston to get Jeffries over.

The half-time hooter could not come quick enough for the Reds, who had a let-off early in the second half when Bradford’s impressive teenage prop Tom Burgess reached the line from one of his barnstorming runs only to lose control of the ball in the act of scoring.

The miss began to look costly as Salford produced a rally which cut the Bulls’ lead to just eight points.

A 40-20 kick from Matty Smith set up the position for skipper Daniel Holdsworth to combine with Luke Patten to get Henry over for his second try and the Australian took Gleeson’s pass five minutes later to complete his hat-trick.

Holdsworth found the target for the first time to convert Henry’s third try, but the fightback was snuffed out when man of the match Jeffries got Briggs jinking through for his second try of the match and Patrick Ah Van took his goal tally to four from five attempts.