Leeds Rhinos 26 Crusaders 32: Rhinos halted as Noble masterminds Crusaders triumph

BRIAN NOBLE could not hide his delight after steering Crusaders to arguably their finest hour with a glorious victory against reigning champions Leeds Rhinos at Headingley Carnegie.

Noble's Wrexham-based outfit outscored the Rhinos by five tries to four and this famous success was no more than they deserved.

The Welshmen had already caused a stir by beating Bradford – the club where Noble enjoyed so much success as coach – for the second time this season last weekend.

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But the significance of this victory went deeper as it ended a seven-match winning run for Leeds and pushed the Crusaders right into contention for an Engage Super League play-off berth.

Noble – no stranger to success at Headingley from his Bradford days – said: "I love this stadium because it's a fabulous place to come and play rugby.

"We instilled the belief in the players and I thought we deserved the win.

"We had a good win against Bradford last week after a poor run and we backed our efforts up, which was extremely pleasing.

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"There was a belief about us and I'm extremely pleased for the players. But we need to kick on from here now."

Heroes emerged everywhere for the injury-hit Crusaders as second rower Weller Hauraki and centre Vince Mellars both touched down twice and Adam Peek was also on target.

Full-back Clinton Schifcofske did not put a foot wrong at full-back and kept the scoreboard ticking over with six goals.

Noble is making Crusaders a force to be reckoned with after building a squad from scratch at the start of the season following his appointment as coach.

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He explained: "We need to know that we can compete on the limited budget and move in the right direction.

"We're encouraging our fans to come along and pretty much every game, bar one or two, we have competed in.

"I'm really delighted with some of the principles we have established."

The collective desire and boundless energy of Noble's side proved too much for Leeds as Mellars's late score sealed the win after the Rhinos had hit back to draw level at 26-26 with a try from Brett Delaney.

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Rhinos coach Brian McClennan admitted Crusaders deserved the points and labelled his side's display as a "bad day at the office".

Tries from Ryan Hall, Lee Smith, Scott Donald and Delaney, plus five goals from Kevin Sinfield, were not enough for the home side.

"We weren't really at the races," said McClennan, who saw prop Kylie Leuluai sustain a leg injury which forced him off in the second half.

"I don't want to say too much because that would disrespect Crusaders. They deserved to get the points today.

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"They worked hard and got the job done, so you have to say well done to them.

"We've got to take it on the chin and move on because we've got a big game coming up against Warrington next weekend."

Leeds Rhinos: Smith, Donald, Delaney, Senior, Hall, Sinfield, McGuire, Leuluai, Buderus, Peacock, Eastwood, Ablett, Clarkson. Substitutes: Kirke, Jones-Buchanan, McShane, Bailey.

Crusaders RL: Schifcofske, Youngquest, Martin, Mellars, Dyer, Lupton, Hanbury, O'Hara, Withers, Bryant, Hauraki, Chan, Winternstein. Substitutes: Peek, James, Flower, White.

Referee: R Hicks (Oldham).