Bulls coach Brian Noble praised his side's defensive qualities despite rattling up another 40 points on attack at Salford.

The Bulls made it five wins out of five in Challenge Cup and Super League and took their points aggregate for the season to 231 but Noble declared: "Our defence was outstanding. To defend six sets on our own line with 12 men following the sin-binning of Shane Rigon was pretty impressive.

"We were well in front at that stage but it showed the desire of the side to keep their line intact."

The Bulls eventually ran in seven tries to finish 40-6 winners but Noble's pre-match prediction of a stiff examination came true.

"Salford gave us a tough work-out and they are going to beat some sides down here," he said.

"If I'm ultra critical, we tried to entertain too much, putting the cart before the horse.

"It was pretty cold out there too but we made too many handling errors by trying to force the pass. I take my hat off to them for their endeavour because they gave themselves an awful lot to do with the amount of ball they put down on the second or third tackle."

Noble picked out two-try second-rower Jamie Peacock for special mention.

"I thought he thoroughly deserved the man of the match award. He looked dangerous every time he carried the ball and that right side was pretty solid defensively all night and he was very much a part of that too."