Super League champions Bradford Bulls are facing a crisis of confidence after losing back-to-back matches for the first time for almost two years.

Championship dark horses Castleford added to their misery by pulling off a stunning seven-try victory at The Jungle to climb back into seventh place in the table with a fourth-successive win.

The Bulls, clearly suffering a hangover from their 50-22 humiliation at the hands of St Helens nine days earlier, now trail Saints by two points after hitting their worst form of the season a month before the play-offs.

Play-off seeking Cas, who have beaten St Helens and taken a point from Wigan at The Jungle this season, claimed their best scalp yet to signal their own title aspirations.

The in-form Tigers, who avenged a 32-8 home defeat by the Bulls in May, were in control for virtually the whole match and shook the champions with the ferocity of their tackling.

Although they had the encouragement of a penalty goal from Paul Deacon and a disallowed try from Scott Naylor, Bradford looked a disjointed outfit from the kick-off and quickly found themselves 12-2 down.

Winger Waine Pryce grabbed the first try on 12 minutes after Danny Orr's long ball exposed a gap on the Bradford right flank and scrum-half Mitch Healey added a second nine minutes later, scooping up the ball after Bradford full-back Michael Withers had been deceived by a wicked bounce.

With Wayne Bartrim in the sin bin - along with Bradford second-rower Jamie Peacock - for holding down in the tackle, skipper Orr took over the goalkicking and put over both conversions.

It could have been even worse for the champions, with Tigers centre Barrie-Jon Mather having a try disallowed, and the visitors lost influential hooker James Lowes with a badly-cut head on 26 minutes.

They pulled a try back when substitute Leon Pryce forced his way over from Robbie Paul's pass close to the line but opportunist tries either side of half-time from Andy Johnson and Jon Wells put them firmly in command.

And two further quickfire tries from Mather and man-of-the-match Orr, who opened up the Bradford defence with an outrageous dummy and sprinted 40 metres to the line, enabled the Tigers to open up a 32-8 lead after only 54 minutes.

The return of Lowes helped settle the champions and Deacon forced his way over for a consolation try but Castleford were simply irresistible and Orr's sweetly-timed pass got second-rower Lee Harland through a gap for his side's seventh try.

Bartrim kicked his third conversion and also put over three penalties as the champions lost their discipline as well as their composure and finished a well-beaten side for the second time in a week.