Catalan Dragons 14 Bradford Bulls 36: Sheriffe hat-trick sees Bulls coast to Catalans triumph

Still the only team never to lose a league game to the Dragons in Perpignan, Bradford were thoroughly impressive in moving to fifth in the table.

Rikki Sheriffe scored a hat-trick and Andy Lynch, Brett Kearney and Steve Menzies all grabbed one try apiece as the visitors ran riot.

Lynch reached a personal landmark as the Bulls charged into an early lead, the powerful prop scoring from Heath L'Estrange's short ball to bring up 200 points for his career.

Matt Orford kicked the conversion and added a penalty midway through the first half as Catalans offered little to encourage their vociferous but frustrated supporters.

The audible groans only got louder when Bradford scored again 24 minutes in, Kearney darting through a flat-footed defence to collect L'Estrange's kick and dive over the whitewash.

Catalans hit back when Frederic Vaccari squeezed in at the corner a split-second before he was tackled into touch, awarded the try only after the video referee had checked it over.

Bradford scored again on the stroke of half-time when Menzies sent in Sheriffe.

But, much as they had done in the previous week's defeat to Leeds, the Dragons got going after the break.

A try from Steve Bell after superb offloads by Sebastien Martins and Dane Carlaw allowed them to get their tails up and a yellow card for Orford handed them a numerical advantage.

Still, the Dragons did themselves no favours, consistently throwing away good position through needless offloads and that trait proved to be their ultimate downfall.

Reaching his own 30-metre line, Jean Philippe Baile attempted to keep the ball alive rather than take contact and his pass was easily picked off by Menzies, the veteran Aussie dashing in to score. Gregory Mounis responded by twisting out of a tackle to score but, by that point, the game was well over.

Orford kicked a penalty for a high shot on Kearney before Sheriffe rounded off the win with two tries in the final two minutes, both after good work by Menzies.

Bulls head coach Steve McNamara said: "We've said all along we like coming here. Our record got tarnished a bit by our Challenge Cup defeat to them last year but we've got a good record here and I'm pleased for the fans who came over that we got the result. It was real credit to everyone involved.

"We had an 8-2 penalty count against us in the second half and Matt Orford was sin-binned so to finish so strongly was impressive."

Catalans Dragons: Walker, Vaccari, Bell, Baile, Pelo, McGuire, Bosc, Ferriol, K. Bentley, Guisset, Carlaw, Sa, Johnson. Substitutes: Mounis, Martins, Casty, Gigot.

Bradford: Kearney, Sheriffe, Platt, Nero, Halley, Sykes, Orford, Scruton, L'Estrange, Lynch, Whitehead, Langley, Menzies. Substitutes: Hall, Godwin, Kopczak, Donaldson.

Referee: R Silverwood (Dewsbury).