Ruthless Huddersfield Giants turned on the style in the second half to destroy beleaguered Bradford Bulls and make it five Super League successes on the trot.
Their West Yorkshire rivals threatened to make a game of it in the opening quarter as they led 10-6, but the final hour was embarrassingly one-sided as Huddersfield scored almost at will to register nine tries from nine different scorers.
To be honest it was the least impressive of the Magic Weekend encounters because for so long it was men against boys at Manchester City’s magnificent Etihad Stadium.
Not that the Giants were complaining, of course, as it was hardly their fault.
Click below to see a match action picture gallery from the game.
However, it means they should head to St Helens on Friday in decent nick, given the straightforward nature of their victory.
It was far from being a vintage opening 40 minutes from the Giants – although the Bulls had something to say about that as they put up some spirited early resistance.
With Adrian Purtell to the fore, Bradford deservedly led 10-6 in the opening quarter to make it clear this was far being a straightforward afternoon for Paul Anderson’s men.
Tries from Danny Addy and Jamie Foster shook the Giants to the core, with a 14 minute rampaging score from Joe Wardle a rare bright moment during a tough initial period.
Wardle’s try had owed a great deal to some excellent work from returning back-row forward Brett Ferres, who wasted little time proving that his five week suspension, following his controversial sending off during the Giants’ Challenge Cup defeat at home against St Helens, had done him no harm whatsoever.
With England star Ferres and the rest of the Giants pack slowly starting to get on top, they had opened up a 24-10 lead ahead of the interval, after scoring three tries in the final 15 minutes of the half.
Skipper Danny Brough set the ball rolling with a 40-20 kick which helped create the position for Shaun Lunt to plunge over from close range.
Brough added the extras and the Giants were ahead for the first time and they piled on the pressure.
In the final four minutes of the opening half Brough was at the heart of two more scores.
In the 36th minute the inspirational captain collected the ball on the sixth tackle on halfway and shot through to find the supporting Scott Grix who in turn fed Luke Robinson to finish a great move.
Then two minutes later Brough played his part in releasing Jodie Broughton from deep and the ex-Salford man raced clear and turned Bulls full-back Lee Gaskell inside out before touching down under the posts.
Bradford showed some renewed spirit at the start of the second period when Adam Henry had an early effort rules out by video referee Ian Smith.
But it wasn’t long before the Giants were inflicting more misery on Francis Cummins’ troops.
An outstanding defensive play from Elliot Kear denied Lunt minutes later, but there was nothing to stop Brough in the 52nd minute when he finished off a barnstorming burst from Larne Patrick to extended the Giants’ advantage to 20 points.
With the Giants pressure mounting it was no surprise when Grix crashed over from close range with ease five minutes later.
That was followed with another try from close in by Ukuma Ta’ai to bring up 40 points.
Anthony Mullally kept up the theme of crossing from no distance whatsoever to become the eighth different scorer before Patrick became the ninth when he went in from close range.
The Bulls did have the final say with Foster’s second try of the game with three minutes remaining, but it was scant consolation for the Bradford players after they had been handed such a brutal beating.
Pictured: Huddersfield Giants fans at Magic Weekend - click here to see
Click here for more Huddersfield Giants news
Want to read, watch and hear more? You can download the FREE Examiner Apple App here , the FREE Examiner Android App here or you can view the paper as an e-edition on your Apple, Android or Kindle device by clicking here
Want the latest Huddersfield Giants news? Follow our Giants news Twitter here
