Robbie Paul admitted there were too many defensive lapses despite the 62-22 hammering of Halifax yesterday.

The Bulls skipper (pictured) bagged a hat-trick in his first game at Odsal for two years as Bradford moved into third place in Super League with an 11-try romp.

More than 15,000 turned out to see Paul joined by veteran Jimmy Lowes as a hat-trick scorer, while strikes by Shontayne Hape, Karl Pratt, Leon Pryce, Paul Deacon and Stuart Reardon sealed the emphatic victory.

"You look at the face of our coach and you know he wasn't happy with our defence at times," said Paul, who performed admirably as the third player to start at full back for the Bulls this season.

"It was a good win, but the scoreline doesn't really reflect the performance. I think we played better against Castleford in the pre-season friendly.

"We gave away the ball far too much and there were some real soft tries in there.

"Of course I am delighted to get a hat trick, but all my tries were just finishing off the great work of my team-mates."

The Bulls, with four regular starters out, went behind to a Martin Moana score after only five minutes but recovered to dominate the encounter with four tries in the first half and seven after the break.

It was an awesome display of power rugby which left coach Brian Noble delighted with the side's try-scoring display.

"We looked sharp and fast and, when we executed properly, very dangerous," he said.

l Bulls v Halifax match report - Pages 40&41