Henry Paul put one over on his old Wigan team-mates by helping Bradford Bulls leapfrog them to the top of Super League.

The classy Kiwi stand-off crafted two tries, kicked seven goals from seven attempts and put over a drop goal for good measure in the Bulls' 35-24 victory over the Warriors in front of another bumper bank holiday crowd at Valley Parade.

"I know what he can do and I thought he and his brother were the difference between the two sides," said Wigan's former New Zealand national coach Frank Endacott.

"They are both unpredictable characters and it was just one of those games that suited them."

After racing into a 34-12 lead, the Bulls were rocked back on their heels with a Wigan fightback that brought the 16,247 supporters to the edge of their seats.

Substitute Wes Davies and impressive scrum-half Adrian Lam grabbed tries in the final quarter to set up an exciting finish but that did little to diminish the satisfaction of Bradford coach Brian Noble.

"I enjoyed it," he said.

"There were some great performances and, when we fix up the little things, we'll be a pretty tough team."

The consolation for the visitors came with skipper Andy Farrell scoring the three points he needed to become only the second Wigan player, behind the immortal Jim Sullivan, to reach 2,000.

Hull missed the chance to take over as Super League leaders when they went down 38-34 at reigning champions St Helens.

Saints led 24-10 at the break and looked to have the two points sewn up when they increased their lead to 38-16 until 11 minutes from time.

But battling Hull hit back with quick-fire tries from former St Helens full-back Steve Prescott, the outstanding Jason Smith and Paul Parker before finally surrendering their unbeaten record.

Daryl Powell enjoyed his first win as Leeds coach as the Rhinos ended a four-match losing run to climb back into the top five with a 32-22 win over Castleford at Headingley.

Two early tries from winger Darren Rogers gave the Tigers a 12-0 lead but Leeds skipper Iestyn Harris managed to stamp his class on the game and winger Marcus St Hilaire grabbed a hat-trick of tries.

London Broncos, Warrington and Wakefield will not be complaining, however, after collecting maximum points to lift themselves away from the foot of the table.

The Broncos ended Salford's three-match winning run with a 14-12 success at the Willows, Warrington triumphed 32-30 at Halifax and Wakefield piled on the agony for bottom-of-the-table Huddersfield with a 24-16 win at the McAlpine Stadium.

Former York Wasps centre Gareth Lloyd was on the scoresheet again for Gateshead Thunder as the Northern Ford Premiership basement club put up a good display against champions Dewsbury Rams.

Lloyd's try took his tally to three from his first two games but it wasn't enough to prevent Gateshead going down 33-22 at the Thunderdome.

Another ex-York man, Damien Ball, bagged a try for Dewsbury but it took two late tries from Kevin Crouthers to make sure of the points.

Chorley Lynx remain one point ahead of York as they went down to a 42-10 home defeat by Whitehaven.

Hull KR dented Keighley's title hopes with a 17-10 win at Craven Park. They secured the win with a try from substitute Mark Blanchard three minutes from time.

It proved a blank weekend for Doncaster who followed their defeat by Sheffield with a 21-15 home beating by Featherstone.

Doncaster were 12-6 ahead in the first half, former York hooker Peter Edwards among the Dragons' scorers, but Featherstone turned it around in the second half.

Updated: 12:45 Tuesday, April 17, 2001