Thomas set for debut

Thomas: Debut

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Crusaders coach Brian Noble has confirmed that Gareth Thomas should make his rugby league debut for the club next Friday against Catalans Dragons.

The Wales rugby union legend, who recently joined the Wrexham-based club on an 18-month deal, was a spectator on Friday at the GPW Recruitment Stadium - the Crusaders putting in a strong performance despite their 37-30 loss to St Helens.

Crusaders were outscored by six tries to five but played some delightful rugby at times, giving Saints several anxious moments with four second-half tries.

"Gareth will be ready for next week," said Noble.

"He has practised really well but it's been a bit strange when you are having to teach how to carry out the play-the-ball.

"But he's an absolutely quality player and a quality person."

Noble took heart from his side's second-half display, with Jamie Thackray, Gareth Raynor,

Michael Witt and Anthony Blackwood touching down to compliment Vince Mellars' first-half try.

Noble said: "We asked for a bit of a response at half-time.

"We started the game on the back foot and Saints were far too quick for us.

"But we had more purpose to our play in the second half and, although we didn't quite achieve parity, we put in a big effort."

Encouraging

Crusaders have had an encouraging start to their second season, with Witt in particular impressing at scrum-half.

"We have certainly got a pulse," Noble quipped. "We know we need to stop digging a hole for ourselves and there were some salutary lessons there for us to learn from."

Even so, Saints looked a class apart in the first half as they ran in tries from James Roby, Kyle Eastmond, Francis Meli and Chris Dean.

Paul Clough and Leon Pryce touched down in the second half but St Helens coach Mick Potter was left to lament his defence.

It needed a late drop-goal from Eastmond to settle home nerves and Potter said: "It's two points, probably not the prettiest of wins, but we move on now.

"Certainly our completion rates were not good enough in the second half.

"We've got some work to do on our defensive and for me it's not good enough.

"We've spoken about it and we need to work on it."

Potter paid tribute to Crusaders, adding: "They're a quality team with a good coaching staff and I think they'll win a lot more games than they did last year."