Salford Red Devils Head Coach Ian Watson has been impressed with his squad over the past few weeks in particular young hooker Josh Wood who featured in the 36-12 victory over Hull Kingston Rovers.
Watson said: “We knew Josh was going to be a good player.
“The tricky thing for Josh was he’d had a couple of injuries years with his shoulder so it was about last year more nurturing him through and if then we got through to this year we could have a real good crack at it and he’s standing up really well at the moment.
Watson went on to praise Man of the Match Junior Sa’u, his forward pack and even Mark Flanagan who missed the game but was named in the 19-man squad.
Watson said: “Junior’s great he’s really on fire at the moment with his performances but everyone stepped up to be fair.
“Like I said our middles obviously you include your back-rowers in that Weller [Hauraki] and Jonesy [Josh Jones] as well.
“He’s [Mark Flanagan] fully fit we just decided to continue as we had with the big lads. He was ill for the Wigan game but that’s probably been somebody’s opportunity where they’ve come in and played really well and at the moment he’s just got to bide his time like everyone else.
“Flash is a professional he just knows that people are playing well at the moment but it’s tough to leave Flash out because he’s a great guy and a great player.
“Last year he was probably our go-to man in asking him to lead things so it is tough leaving him out of the team at the moment but he’s had no heirs or graces about it and he’s been really good in the changing rooms and training really well he’s been a good pro to be fair.
The Red Devils boss also went on to talk about the injured Kriss Brining and trialist Gene Orsmby who has been training with the Club.
Watson said: “It’s quite slow to be fair. He’s [Kriss Brining] going to see a specialist and he’s going to have to go back and see him again and see whether he needs to have surgery – he’s got a disc bulge.
“Gene’s [Ormsby] been training with us now and he’s been first class to be fair since he came in his attitude has been really good.
“We just wanted to have a little look at Gene because we are short in the outside backs.
“Gene had been released by Huddersfield and I’d known Gene from Warrington and obviously Gareth O’Brien and Tyrone [McCarthy] know him as well and there were a couple of players who gave him really big raps to be fair at Huddersfield about how he’s really knuckled down.
“We’ll see how the trial goes at first.”
