Bulls boss Steve McNamara made no excuses after watching his side completely outclassed by St Helens in their home opener.

Bradford were thumped 38-6 after a muddled display that completely failed to build on positives signs showed in their season opener.

Despite losing to Huddersfield the previous week, the Bulls had at least provided hope, but this time there was little to take from an inept showing.

McNamara said: “We’re hugely disappointed and we’re hurting a lot.

“You couldn’t say there were positives today, obviously not. We weren’t at the races but it’s part of a process this group needs to go through.

“We expected to perform a whole lot better today but, for whatever reason, it’s not happened and we need to make sure we rectify that.

“There were a lot of things that looked rusty today, I can’t deny that. It wasn’t a great performance, far from it.”

Combinations lacked any familiarity and individual performances were not up to scratch, as the Bulls failed to get out of first gear all game. While halves Brett Kearney and Matt Orford struggled for Bradford, Kyle Eastmond and Leon Pryce sizzled for Saints.

Once the visitors had amassed a 20-0 half-time lead, there was never any going back.

“We were certainly a way off the mark there, particularly in the first half and Saints were pretty hot,” said McNamara.

“Leon Pryce’s performance in the first half was as good as I’ve seen him play.

“There was a big improvement from us in the second half.

“We broke them a fair bit and had some opportunities but a combination of their defence and some poor options kept us out.

“Their offensive play at times was electrifying and it’s probably as good as they’ve been for a long time.

“They had a lot of zip and vigour about them and certainly played a lot more intensive with the ball than we did.”