The £10million man, who was chased by Hull boss Phil Brown as well as Bruce this summer, set his side on the road to a comfortable 4-1 Barclays Premier League win at the Stadium of Light with an early penalty, and then helped himself to a second after the break as the Black Cats cruised to victory.

Bent, 25, has four senior international caps to his name, but is desperate to add to his tally after being given a new lease of life on Wearside after a miserable spell at Tottenham.

Bruce said: "You can see he is enjoying playing here, he is enjoying playing football again, he is enjoying being Sunderland's centre-forward.

"I have been try all summer to get him here because there aren't many centre-forwards.

"When you look at it and analyse it, there aren't many playing in the Premier League, so he must have an outside chance if he can keep producing the form he is in at the moment.

"The last World Cup, he got 22 goals for Charlton and didn't go, which I know upset him.

"But he can only just do his talking on the pitch and see where he gets to."

Bent fired the home side ahead from the penalty spot with just 13 minutes gone after striker Craig Fagan had inexplicably handled Andy Reid's corner, and although defender Kamil Zayatte levelled two minutes before the break, the respite was only temporary.

Reid's 49th-minute strike restored Sunderland's lead, and they never looked back at the Tigers wilted.

Bent made sure of the points with his second after 66 minutes when he was played in by Anton Ferdinand, and Zayatte's 76th-minute own goal as he deflected debutant Michael Turner's header into the net simply added to Hull's misery.

Bruce was delighted with the former Hull defender, who made light of lining up against his former club in his first outing for Sunderland.

He said: "It was a big day for him. It's never easy, believe me, to play against your old team and your old mates.

"You can see why I brought him here - he wants to head it, he wants to tackle, he is no-nonsense.

"He is an old-fashioned centre-back and there aren't many of them, either, knocking around anymore.

"I am sure he will be a big, big crowd favourite here because he does all the things for me that a centre-back should.

"He wants to head it, he wants to tackle, he wants to compete. He is a threat in both boxes, he scores a goal, like he did today.

"You could say it might have got a deflection, but I would say it was a great header from him."

Brown was disappointed with his side's second-half display, and admitted there was a lot of work to be done on the training pitch.

He said: "The most important part of a footballer is what goes on between his ears and in the second half, I don't think our focus was right and I don't think we applied ourselves the way we applied ourselves in the first half.

"There were a lot of positives to come from the first half in terms of the way we played. The display was quite pleasing.

"But in the second half, unacceptable defending and individual errors have cost us dearly.

"That takes work on the training field, and that's exactly what we will be doing this week."