WHILE North Wales Crusaders grabbed more than 40 points in their latest League One triumph, coach Carl Forster has been making his case for the defence.

It’s now back-to-back victories in the league for the Crusaders on the back on their 42-4 verdict away to Newcastle Thunder.

This success keeps Crusaders in the top-six as the race for the play-offs develops and Forster judged Sunday as his side’s best defensive showing of the season.

The head coach told the club’s YouTube channel: “I think Newcastle had just as much bottle as us, which you don’t normally see when the scoreline is what it is and they had some good field position, that we defended our line really well.

“Our technique was really good, the contact. I thought Chris Barratt, Baldy (Joe Baldwin), they set the tone in terms of our defence.

“Cozzy (Shaun Costello) was putting shots on late on and, defensively, that’s the best we’ve been all season.

“Midlands at home was a really good performance defensively, but I thought today topped that and it was a good defensive display and, obviously, we did some good stuff with the ball.”

Following on from their thrilling win over Workington Town the previous week, Crusaders enjoyed a promising opening.

Ben Lane opened Crusaders’ account with a sixth minute try and that was followed four minutes later when Barratt and Ben Evans combined superbly for the second score.

Rob Massam’s first try came next and Crusaders concluded the half with Kieran Taylor’s score after half-an-hour.

Lane converted two of the tries, while his other two kicks hit the post.

Shaun Costello put the game to bed with a terrific try 10 minutes into the second half and Lane was on the money again with the conversion points.

It was then Massam’s turn to take centre stage with a pair of tries in the space of six minutes to complete a fairytale hat-trick on his return to the side.

Lane added Crusaders’ final try on 78 minutes, a minute before Thunder gained a consolation score.

“I thought we were really good in large parts of the game,” said Forster.

“I thought, obviously, some parts of the game where we weren’t completing. I think we gave about six or seven penalties in their 20, you know, them getting out of yardage quite easily, but I thought defensively we were outstanding.

“Actually just really gutted to concede on the hooter at the end there.

“I thought the boys deserved the zero and, obviously, they don’t come often.

“So, a little bit disappointed with that but, overall, you can’t complain.”

Next up for Crusaders is Sunday’s contest away to Cornwall.

North Wales, in sixth, are level on points with fifth-placed Midlands, but they do have a game in hand on the Hurricanes.