There were times when Bradford Bulls looked embarrassingly lost in the sort of one-sided derby that they once specialised in winning. The shift in the West Yorkshire balance of power to Leeds over the past two years was rousingly confirmed by the runaway Rhinos at Headingley Carnegie last night in stretching their lead in the engage Super League to four points.

On the evidence of a hopelessly disjointed fourth defeat of the season, Bradford are unlikely to be challenging Leeds for a while. Even their rare co-ordinated attacking efforts were thwarted by a defiant Leeds defence, which complemented the irresistible nature of an attack that plundered eight tries; as complete a performance as is likely to be seen all year.

Leeds went in at the break with a 26-2 lead, which Scott Donald supplemented within three minutes of the resumption by putting the result beyond any doubt, leaving Brian McClennan, in his first season as Leeds coach, to reflect on what all the fuss was about close-fought derbies.

The Rhinos fell behind to a third-minute penalty by Paul Deacon and lost Kylie Leuluai after the prop was poleaxed tackling Chris Feather. However, Bradford were then torn apart by five first-half tries, while their own passes went to ground or flew into touch and a Leeds defence that shut out Harlequins in their previous game never gave an inch.

Matt Diskin’s grubber-kick deflected off Terry Newton and sat up for Jamie Jones-Buchanan, who has rarely covered so much ground, to grab the opening try. Matt Cook was easily shrugged aside by Kevin Sinfield in dispatching Brent Webb for the first of the full back’s hat-trick.

Webb then read Deacon’s cross-field kick and Jones-Buchanan’s quick tap resulted in a try for Lee Smith at the other end, before Gareth Ellis set up the first of two tries by Rob Burrow and Webb’s second.

Webb followed up Jordan Tansey’s clever kick for his third on a night that Bradford would prefer to forget, but they must absorb the lessons if they are to trouble Leeds in future.

Scorers: Leeds Rhinos: Tries: Jones-Buchanan, Webb 3, Smith, Burrow 2, Donald. Goals: Sinfield 4, Burrow 2. Bradford Bulls: Goal: Deacon.

Leeds Rhinos: B Webb; L Smith, G Ellis, K Senior, S Donald; J Tansey, R Burrow; K Leuluai, M Diskin, J Peacock, J Jones-Buchanan, A Lauitiiti, K Sinfield. Interchange: S Worrall, L Burgess, N Scruton, R Hall.

Bradford Bulls: D Halley; S Tadulala, C Nero, S Hape, J Evans; B Jeffries, P Deacon; A Lynch, T Newton, C Feather, D Solomona, S Finnigan, S Burgess. Interchange: I Harris, W Godwin, M Cook, M James.

Referee: S Ganson.