Brian Noble could not hide his delight after steering Crusaders to arguably their finest hour with a glorious 32-26 victory against Leeds, the reigning champions. Noble's Wrexham-based side out-scored the Rhinos by five tries to four and this famous success was no more than they deserved. 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.
St Helens resisted a late Wigan comeback to hold on for a 26-24 victory and blow the league leadership race wide open. Mick Potter's men had just enough to see off Michael Maguire's table-toppers meaning they are only four points behind them in third place, while second-placed Warrington are even closer with a deficit of just two points. It was not as easy as it should have been for the Saints, though, who held a 14-point advantage going into the final 10 minutes.
Richard Agar, the Hull coach, slammed his players for the way they threw away an 18-0 lead against injury-hit Huddersfield, who roared back to win 32-18. The visitors seemed set for a fifth consecutive Super League victory when they scored three converted tries in the opening half-hour. But Agar was left fuming after the Giants hit back with 32 unanswered points. Agar said: "There were some pretty lazy efforts out there from our big men. We got ourselves into a good position and then seemed to give up.
Justin Morgan was thrilled with a strong team performance as Hull KR completed the double over Harlequins with a 42-6 win. Michael Dobson scored two tries and kicked seven goals as Rovers romped to victory. Morgan said: "It really was just a good solid team performance. "In the 78th minute we showed a great desire to defend our line when the game was certainly won. Terry Matterson, the coach, believes Castleford are primed for a play-off push after claiming a thrilling 28-22 win at Salford.
The Tigers backed up Tuesday's 24-20 win over Catalan Dragons and moved within three points of the top eight. Ricky Stuart, the Cronulla coach, has refused to blame Tony Archer despite Australia's No 1 referee committing a gaffe that may have put paid to the Sharks' slim NRL finals hopes. With Cronulla trailing St George Illawarra 12-4 and 10 minutes remaining yesterday, Archer inexplicably refused to go to the video referee when lock Paul Gallen burrowed over for what he believed was a try, the referee ruling the NSW Origin representative had been held up. The Sharks had wasted yet another opportunity and the Dragons put on two late tries to run out 22-4 winners.
"It was a very, very crucial decision," Stuart said. "That was an important result for us." * Agencies
