MARK Dunning was delighted with the defensive toughness as his Bulls made it four wins in five by crushing Dewsbury at Odsal.

Yesterday's 48-6 win against the second-bottom Rams was their biggest of the season.

But interim boss Dunning was happiest with the way they kept the back door shut – the Bulls have now conceded only three ties in the last two games.

“That’s probably the most pleasing aspect,” he said. “We’ve conceded six points.

“When your defence is as desperate and hungry to succeed as ours, then you’re always going to be in with a shout of winning games.

“There are two sides to the game. The fans love to see free-flowing rugby but that’s got to be on the back of solid D as well.

“We take great pride in our goal-line. The number of times they had three or four sets on our goal-line and really challenged us but we stood firm.

“I think that broke their hearts.”

The Bulls, who lost Matty Dawson-Jones with an early hamstring injury, scored three of their eight tries while reduced to 12 men after Ryan Millar was sin-binned.

That started a run of 42 unanswered points against opponents who have now lost seven on the bounce.

Dunning added: “I thought we were really good and professional and disciplined as well because the game got scrappy at times and could have turned into something different.

“Dewsbury have come here full of enthusiasm with a new coach and four new players added to the roster.

“We knew this was a potential banana skin and spoke all week about looking after ourselves and being diligent with everything we do.

“We’re not getting carried away. It’s another box ticked but we’ve got a massive test ahead of us this coming Sunday against Leigh.”

Ben Evans was not in the squad but Dunning stressed that was down to a back problem in training and nothing to do with the announcement that he will be joining Barrow for next season.

“Ben’s been 100 per cent professional and honest. I’ve known about this for 10 days or so now.

“The reason he didn’t play was that his back went into spasm lifting weights in the gym on Thursday. He wasn’t happy but we had a chat, as I do with the players who don’t play, and he understood the reasons why.”