Saints star Sean Long admitted his side had a lot of work to do ahead of the visit of the Bulls in next week's Super League opener.

Speaking after his side were 'nilled' by the rampant Sydney City Roosters in a St Valentine's Day massacre, the disappointed scrum half said there was a lot to improve on if they are to compete against the former world club champions at Knowsley Road on Friday.

"Bradford will be rubbing their hands after that one," said Long after the 38-0 drubbing.

And Long, who kicked the vital drop goal in last year's Grand Final to earn St Helens a place in last night's World Club Challenge at the Reebok Stadium, added: "We now only have a short space of time to put a lot of things right. Coming up against Bradford will be no easy task and we have to go away and prepare for next week.

"Things just didn't work out for us and there is a lot we can do to improve on that performance.

"I don't know about a backlash but we will certainly want to be a lot more competitive than that."

Saints were humiliated by a rampant Sydney City Roosters side who dominated every facet of play in last night's game.

In particular their kicking was superb as they humbled the Saints in a one-sided contest which saw the equal highest winning margin in the competition's history.

The Roosters ended a great week for Australian sport by destroying their English opponents, who failed to match the Bulls' 41-26 victory over Newcastle Knights in last year's competition.

And the NRL champions' coach even admitted that he was disappointed that St Helens didn't put up a stronger fight.

"I don't mean any disrespect but we were expecting a more competitive encounter," said Ricky Stuart.

And Saints coach Ian Millward admitted that it was a poor performance by his side.

"I am disappointed that it was no reflection on the standard or quality of the team I coach," he said.

"It is a funny reflection when you look at the game. I thought our attack wasn't up to scratch and our kicking game was very poor, which created a lot of problems field position-wise.

"I thought they played well and the scoreboard reflects the best team won."

But surprisingly Millward was not prepared to be drawn into any talk of the Bradford game, playing down any suggestion of a backlash when the Bulls visit Knowsley Road.