Brian Noble was delighted to end a four match losing streak with a  44-20 success over Bradford Bulls.

Having beaten the Bulls in Edinburgh during the Magic Weekend expectations were high and Crusaders lived up to them with a fine display.

“I am really pleased for the players,” he said. “We have not been in the winning enclosure for three or four weeks now and leaked a lot of points.

“It reinforces the belief and while it was probably about the two points tonight it was also about reinforcing the things that made us relatively successful at the start of the year in terms of competing.”

While Noble was pleased with the overall performance, the ex-Great Britain chief is not getting carried away, adding: “We didn’t give ourselves a decent start in the second half.

“Weller Hauraki dropped the ball on the left and somebody missed a simply clearance on the right.

“Those individual things have been happening to us but we put it right. At 20-16 we went straight down the other end and scored.

“I thought we played some good rugby today, we didn’t have any field position in the second half but scored tries, it means that we really bent our backs.

“It is important though that we take on board what has happened and improve, that is not the scoreboard or people’s expectations but our ourselves, 17 blokes turning up to work for each other.”