It is rare for Catalans to shrivel in the heat and an unforgiving Bradford Bulls made it the equivalent of a blast furnace for the French side at Odsal yesterday. All thoughts of a return trip to Wembley in the Carnegie Challenge Cup final in August disappeared in a nine-minute horror spell, when the Bulls piled up four tries while the Dragons had Clint Greenshields, their full back, in the sin-bin.

Although less than 15 minutes had elapsed, Catalans' nine-match unbeaten league and cup run had effectively been ended by a ruthless streak and clinical finishing. As hard as they toiled, the Dragons could not find their way back into the fifth-round tie from such a heavy initial deficit, coupled with Bradford adding further tries by Jamie Langley and Shontayne Hape by way of insurance early in the second half.

In conditions more familiar to the South of France, Bradford barely broke sweat in racing to a 24-0 lead and restricted the visiting team's late rally to 12 points, with Semi Tadulala, the predatory Bulls wing, adding the third of his team's eight touchdowns at the finish.

Mick Potter, whose successor as Catalans coach is expected to be confirmed this week, was unhappy with the yellow card shown to Greenshields in the sixth minute, for holding down Michael Platt after a try-saving tackle. Potter also felt aggrieved that similar challenges by Bradford went unpunished, yet at the same time questioned his team's motivation.

“The control was taken away from us at 24 points down,” Potter, who is joining St Helens next season, said. “I thought there might be a slim chance at half-time, but I was disappointed that as a team we seemed to be a little down. We came back a bit, but that was only because they were cruising.”

Seconds after Greenshields's removal, Bradford shipped the ball to the left via David Solomona and Hape for Tadulala to score the first of his hat-trick. Forced to drop out on the next set of tackles, Sam Burgess burst on to Terry Newton's delayed pass. A charge and offload by Jamie Langley created space down the right for Paul Sykes to dispatch Dave Halley.

Hape's carving run was capitalised on by Tadulala in adding his second try and it could have been so much worse for Catalans, Paul Deacon having two scores disallowed. Greenshields partly made amends by racing into a gap from a scrum to stem the tide, until a burst of three more tries either side of the break. Touchdowns by Dimiti Pelo and Julien Touxagas were too little, too late for Catalans.

Scorers: Bradford Bulls: Tries: Tadulala 3, Burgess, Halley, Nero, Langley, Hape. Goals: Deacon 7. Catalans Dragons: Tries: Greenshields, Pelo, Touxagas. Goals: Bosc 2.

Bradford Bulls: M Platt; D Halley, P Sykes, S Hape, S Tadulala; I Harris, P Deacon; A Lynch, T Newton, S Burgess, D Solomona, J Langley, G Morrison. Interchange: C Nero, S Finnigan, M James, W Godwin.

Catalans Dragons: C Greenshields; J Murphy, A Mogg, S Raguin, D Pelo; T Bosc, C McGuire; A Chan, A Gorrell, J Guisset, G Mounis, J Croker, D Carlaw. Interchange: D Ferriol, R Casty, J Fakir, J Touxagas.

Referee: B Thaler.