North Wales Crusaders head coach Anthony Murray believes his side’s intensity and enthusiasm shone through in their 30-18 victory over Workington Town.
Murray’s men made it three wins in a row at Queensway Stadium, drawing level in the table with Workington on 12 points having played a game less.
After falling behind inside the opening ten minutes, Crusaders responded excellently and dominated the remainder of the match to secure a deserved win.
“I think it was the manner in which we beat Workington that was most pleasing,” Murray said.
“I felt comfortable all afternoon.
“I thought our intensity was there, our enthusiasm was there and you’ve only got to look at the amount of times we defensively pushed Workington into touch.
“That’s all about enthusiasm and wanting to defend your try line.
“There was some real good team spirit and work ethic and that’s what Crusaders is all about.”
Murray was once again impressed with how side managed the game the longer it went on.
He said: “I’m hoping we’ve learnt from the first-half of the season.
“In games like that, we possibly would’ve come out for the second-half and played like Harlem Globetrotters, but we didn’t.
“We stuck to task and I thought the game management and kicking game from both halfbacks was spot on.
“Our completion rate was really high and our penalty count was low.
“It paid dividends in the end.”
Despite North Wales now being back in the play-off race, Murray isn’t getting carried away.
“We won’t get ahead of ourselves and get too excited,” he said.
“We’ve got a real tough fixture at Oldham and we’ve never taken it further than the next game.
“We’ll just carry on working on the things we have been in training and all we can ask is that the players look to improve week in, week out.
“This kind of form has always been there and the players haven’t stopped working hard.
“They’ve never stopped believing in what we’re doing.
“I can’t fault any of them as the desire and commitment is there.
” It’s a really nice reward for the players to get some points on the board and it just gives you that bit more confidence.
“Rugby league is about loving what you do and it’s great to see the players playing with a smile on their faces.”
