Bradford 38 Huddersfield 12: Finnigan strikes twice as Bulls charge back to form

After a disappointing first-round loss to Wakefield, Bradford showed on Saturday why they are as good a bet as anyone for this season's Super League title.

The Bulls played some fluent, enterprising rugby in which mistakes were kept to a minimum and had some particularly impressive performers in the back row of their pack. The prodigious Sam Burgess was in storming form, contributing 73 high-quality minutes, mainly at loose forward, and looking every inch the established Great Britain international he became last year.

Glenn Morrison also had a magnificent first half, then came back from a couple of mistakes in the second to score a remarkable try – Bradford's sixth and last – in the final minute. Just to make the coach, Steve McNamara – no mean back-rower himself in his playing days – look like a strategic genius, Simon Finnigan came on for his Bulls debut to score a try after four seconds and follow it up with a second.

"He gives us something different from anyone we already have here," said McNamara of the close-season signing from Salford.

When you consider that David Solomona still has to play this season, not to mention the wingers Semi Tadulala and Tame Tupou, and that a fit Ben Jeffries was left out, it is clear that Bradford have enviable strength in depth, rather more so than any of their obvious rivals.

Huddersfield, on their early season form, do not look like being one of those. Last year the Giants lost their first seven games and still had the best defensive record in the competition at one stage. There will be no repeat of that conundrum, not because they are guaranteed to win any of their next five games but because they are never going to have the best defensive figures in the division.

At Odsal, they missed too many one-on-one tackles. Worse than that, the collective hunger seems to have gone out of their defensive work so their coach, Jon Sharp, must find a way of reawakening it if this season is not to be an anticlimax after last year's play-off appearance.

A last-minute try from Stanley Gene, the 100th of his career, gave Hull Kingston Rovers a 24-20 victory at the Catalan Dragons on Saturday night.

Bradford: Platt; Evans, Sykes, Nero, Hape; Harris, Deacon; Vagana, Newton, Lynch, Langley, Morrison, Burgess. Substitutes used: Halley, Godwin, Finnigan, James.

Huddersfield: Thurman; Elford, Whatuira, Wild, Jensen; Brown, Robinson; Griffin, Hudson, Skandalis, Lolesi, Snitch, Raleigh. Substitutes not used: Crabtree, Gatis, Jones, Jackson.

Referee: B Thaler (Castleford).

Finnigan: Two-try debut