CENTURIONS 6, BRADFORD BULLS 46: They might be competing in the same competition - but the Centurions and the Bulls are leagues apart.

Leigh huffed and puffed, hinting at a shock result for the first 40 minutes, but were then blown off the park by some champagne rugby from the Bulls.

Worryingly, Bulls coach Brian Noble felt his side had only played to 60 per cent of their potential.

Goodness knows what the scoreline would have been had they approached 100 per cent. You can't knock Leigh's effort and enthusiasm - but those two elements alone aren't going to get them out of trouble.

Against the Bulls they were physically and tactically inferior. Unless Leigh can rectify both elements they'd better be prepared for more nights like Friday.

With all the territorial advantage they had in the first half, Leigh had a golden opportunity to put on a few points and ask some questions of the Bulls.

But Leigh didn't have the craft or variety to prise open the Bradford defence and came up completely empty despite all their pressure.

The Bulls, on the other hand, rarely got into Leigh's '20' but when they did they came up with two tries. Bradford turned possession over 10 times in the first half alone.

Many of those errors were forced by the quality of Leigh's tackling but what the Centurions didn't have was the ability to turn that possession into points.

Injuries to Jason Ferris and Oli Wilkes didn't do Leigh any favours but even before they went off, Leigh were on a slippery pole, sliding towards a nine-try hammering.

Leigh were perhaps a shade unlucky to be 10-0 down at half time with the contest far more evenly balanced than the scoreboard indicated.

The Bulls had taken a 10th minute lead when Iestyn Harris slipped a Ferris tackle 20 metres out and glided in for a try that Paul Deacon goaled but for the next half hour or so it was Leigh who asked all the questions.

They forced a couple of repeat sets as they hammered away at the Bulls' line but the nearest they got was when John Duffy got Phil Jones over but the try was disallowed for a forward pass.

Leigh paid for their missed opportunities when, with just a couple of minutes to go to the break, Richard Moore spilled possession and Leon Pryce ghosted into the line from full-back to get brother Karl in at the corner.

Two tries in the first seven minutes of the second half put paid to any lingering hopes Leigh might have had of pulling the game round.

Harris was heavily involved in both. He switched play cleverly for Lesley Vainikolo to swerev into a gap and round Ben Cooper and moments later he was cashing in on another Leigh mistake to stroll in at the corner.

Deacon added one conversion for a 20-0 lead. With a handy cushion, the Bulls increased their amount of ball movement and really punished Leigh's leaky defence.

Front rower Rob Parker showed all the finishing speed of an outside back as he blasted his way through clean up the middle to score against his hometown team before Leigh finally got their side of the scoreboard moving. Mike Govin started the move that Duffy and Jones continued until Ian Knott slipped in for a try that Jones converted.

An eight minute, four-try burst from the Bulls took them well clear before the end. Jamie Langley and Lee Radford combined for Karl Pryce's second; a mesmerising movement ended with Leon Pryce taking the final pass off Harris; the Langley/Radford combination worked again for Deacon with just enough time left for Radford to send Langly in.