Super League new boys Catalans Dragons were no match for the might of the champions, who found their ruthless streak to give Steve McNamara his first win as head coach.

The Dragons, who conceded nine tries in a 50-18 home defeat by the Bulls in March, leaked 10 this time as Bradford shrugged off the absence of leading scorer Paul Deacon to outplay their French visitors in an embarrassingly one-sided encounter at Odsal.

The versatile Stanley Gene, playing in a fourth different position in as many matches, proved to be an able deputy for Deacon at scrum-half and his devastating running brought him a hat-trick of tries.

It was one-way traffic from the sixth minute when winger Marcus Bai took advantage of a bunched Dragons defence to take a suspiciously forward pass from Michael Withers and cross unopposed at the corner.

The Catalans defence was breached at will as they struggled to cope with the penetrative running of fit-again second row pair Brad Meyers and Paul Johnson and the industrious Gene.

Centre Shontayne Hape pounced after Dragons winger Justin Murphy failed to clear a high kick from Iestyn Harris and Bai collected another pinpoint punt from the skipper to send Ben Harris over for a third try inside 23 minutes.

The visitors were clinging on hopelessly and they were undone once more in a crucial spell by man of the match Gene, who bounced off defenders to touch down on 31 minutes and then accepted a neat offload from Hape to scamper 30 metres for a second.

Harris kicked three of the five conversions to put his side into an unassailable 26-0 lead at the break.

Any hope of a Catalans fightback were extinguished within three minutes of the re-start when Bradford scored their sixth try.

A thrilling break from his own line by full-back Withers once more had the visitors penned inside their own half and, when their passing broke down, Ben Harris was on hand to pounce for a gift score.

The Dragons' only first-half chance came when left winger Bruno Verges lost control of the ball over the line and he had another close shave nine minutes into the second half when he got his fingertips to Michael Dobson's grubber kick but failed to apply downward pressure.

Little went right for the French side, a point illustrated in the build-up to the next try, with Lesley Vainikolo appearing to knock on and twice put his feet on the touchline.

Nevertheless, the Dragons defence was all at sea as Bulls substitute Brett Ferres brushed aside the meek challenge of John Wilson to touch down and put his side 36-0 in front.

Prop Andy Lynch also powered his way through wafer-thin tackling, although the Catalans avoided a whitewash when stand-off Sean Rudder took David Berthezene's pass to grab a try converted by Dobson.

Gene then forced his way to the line from close range to complete his hat-trick nine minutes from the end and Vainikolo had the final say in injury time when he proved unstoppable from 10 metres out as he brought up the half-century.

Ferres took over the goalkicking and kicked both the last two conversions to leave the visitors a demoralised outfit.