McNamara says the better side won

Ben Harris had a first-half try ruled out for obstruction, which McNamara said was a costly call, but he had no quarrel with the final outcome.

"I'm hugely disappointed to lose but extremely proud of a bunch of players who worked their socks," he said.

"When the try was disallowed, it was a huge call not to go to the video ref."

Reaction: Bradford 14-35 St Helens

You don't want to be chasing the game against St Helens but we had to throw caution to the wind in the second half Steve McNamara

Tries by Willie Talau, Francis Meli and Matt Gidley put Saints 17-4 ahead at the break, forcing the Bulls to take the game to them in the second half.

But they were punished by further scores from Paul Clough, Leon Pryce and Mike Bennett.

"Their catch and pass was better than ours and that's why they scored more points than us," added McNamara.

606: DEBATE MacNamara's decision not to call Big Les back was crazy pjbull

"We probably won a lot of the contact and a lot of the collisions - the one area we lost was on the scoreboard and that's the area that counts in a semi-final.

"You've got to give credit to them. They defended their line superbly and came up with some special plays.