JOHN Kear expressed his delight at the mental strength and resilience of his players in testing conditions after some “honesty” at half-time.

Bradford Bulls ran out 26-24 victors in a hard-fought battle across the Channel against Toulouse, in which the visitors were underdogs.

READ MORE: How Bulls beat Toulouse

Kear said: “I’m absolutely delighted. I thought we played outstandingly well in the first quarter.

“Then Toulouse dominated with possession and execution in the second quarter and 18 unanswered points really put us under the cosh.

“At half-time I asked for a response. There was a lot of honesty at half-time. We got that response.

“Once again, you thought when they scored that break away try, will it break us again, but no it didn’t.

“We showed great resilience and great mental strength and we came away with the win and, I thought, a deserved win.”

France has been experiencing record temperatures of late and it was certainly a sticky, physically demanding test at the Stade Ernest Argelès.

Kear himself was victim of melting conditions and his players were quick to lose their shirts as soon as the final hooter blew.

The head coach said: “Anybody can see the adversity, just look at me, the sweat’s pouring off me, it’s been absolutely red hot.

“We’ve come to the backyard of a team who’s more used to it than we are and we’ve won.

“So, I’m absolutely delighted, and it shows we’re up, we’re running, we’re fighting and we want to get into that top five.”

The to-and-fro nature of the game, and the incessant pressure of Toulouse at times, meant Bulls had to do a lot of scrambling as well as attacking.

Kear added: “There were some great last-ditch efforts, but everybody really had a dig.

“Everybody did have a dig and that’s all you can ask for, especially when there’s some quality there.

“When you’re having a dig and you’ve got some quality, you tend to come up with a good team and that’s what we’re developing.”

The victory now sees Bulls on a three-game winning streak and they’re building momentum at the perfect time with the promotion chase entering its final stages.

Kear’s men have now leapfrogged Sheffield Eagles into sixth with the two points and the coach admits his side are building form, but is wary of what is to come.

He added: “Obviously we’ve got Swinton next week and they came here and beat this mob as well.

“We’ve got bear that in mind. They’re a good footballing team and they’ll ask questions.

“But what we’ve got to do first of all is get ourselves back to the hotel, have a shower.

“We’ll get changed, have a couple of pints, then we’ll get on the plane back home early tomorrow morning, so that we can start preparing for Swinton.

“But, I could not be more pleased for the players.

“I’m absolutely delighted with their effort, application and desire.”