McNamara left puzzled by showing as weekend starts badly

Lacklustre Bradford showed no signs of the impressive form which had seen them string together a five-match unbeaten run and he conceded the enthusiastic Welsh outfit out-played them.

"Crusaders beat us in every single department," he said. "Everything went wrong for us and it was a real non-performance. We're obviously disappointed and I certainly can't say if we'd have done better in one area we may have had a chance of winning the game because it was all across the park. We looked very down and low on energy."

Bradford had defended their line well before Michael Witt broke the deadlock after 23 minutes but McNamara believed the West Yorkshire club were already heading towards the surprise defeat.

"We held them out but the signs were there that we weren't on the money," he added. "We were losing too many tackles and not only were we poor in all areas but the majority of our 17 players under-performed.

"Normally you may have three or four shining lights but across the board most of them under-performed by quite a long way."

Bradford were trailing 13-0 at the break and made 10 errors in the second half as they strived to get back into the fixture, their handling proving sloppy and their kicking game non-existent.

"We were doing some very un-Bradford like things," said McNamara. "We hurt ourselves a lot, not just by giving the ball away, but by not covering each other where we have done recently."

Michael Platt injured his heel in the warm-up, meaning Jason Crookes was drafted in, while scrum-half Matt Orford also departed with a shoulder problem midway through the second period although it is not thought to be too serious.

The Crusaders delivered their fifth win of the year and McNamara said: "I have been impressed all season.

"They've got 15 players who have been in the NRL and we've got a side with some young boys – Elliott Whitehead, James Donaldson, Jason Crookes.

"They have played against some very experienced players today and got taught a lesson."

One of those was new signing Jarrod Sammut who enjoyed a fantastic debut just a day after flying in from Sydney.

The ex-Penrith scrum-half scored a classy solo try and coach Brian Noble said: "He got off a plane at 10 o'clock yesterday.

"We actually delayed training so he could have a little run and that's what it was – a little bit of a run – but he seems like he's been part of the team all season.

"It was a fine effort but this team is a fabulous group of people."