Coaching club and country to be Noble cause

Bradford's Brian Noble has been confirmed as Great Britain's new coach, on a three-year contract and will combine the job with his club duties.

Bradford's Brian Noble has been confirmed as Great Britain's new coach, on a three-year contract and will combine the job with his club duties.

The former Test captain was assistant to David Waite and was the obvious choice as successor.

"I'm extremely proud," said Noble. "It's always been an ambition of mine to coach Great Britain as well as my club side." Noble, who has lead the Bulls to great success, including a clean sweep of trophies over the last 12 months, does not believe that the extra workload will be a problem for him.

He takes the Great Britain job with Bradford's blessing and said: "The workload won't be too much different from what I'm used to."

Noble expects to appoint his assistants soon with the signs pointing to him asking Graham Steadman, recently sacked by Castleford, to continue as part of the Great Britain set-up. Huddersfield's Jon Sharp is another who could be invited on board.

Noble will be in charge for the first three years of the new Tri-Nations tournament, involving a series of matches at the end of the domestic season against Australia and New Zealand. While it is important that Great Britain should do well under that new format, the ultimate goal is the proposed World Cup in Australia in 2008.

"We've recreated the belief within Great Britain that we can not only compete but also win things," said Noble. "We no longer have a belief issue. We have a confident football team."