Salford Red Devils got their 2019 Betfred Super League season off to the perfect start with a 14-34 victory over Huddersfield Giants at the John Smith’s Stadium.
We got the thoughts of Head Coach Ian Watson on the performance, standout performers and the Red Devils fans.
On the victory…
“We looked a lot at ourselves in the week leading up to this game rather than looking at Huddersfield. We wanted to build on what we’ve been working on in pre-season and our pre-season friendlies to make sure that we were good and there were large parts of the game which I’m really pleased with. I thought if we had executed a little better in the first half, we could have put some more points on in that first period.”
On the fluidity in attack…
“Having a spine to work with for the full pre-season has been a big plus for us. They were all very keen to get back over after The Qualifiers last year – Rob Lui, Jackson Hastings and Joey Lussick – everyone wanted to be back for the first day of pre-season. We are really happy with where we are, but we know we’ve got improvement in us as a group as well.”
On Junior Sa’u’s injury…
“He’s done his ribs. We’ll have to see where he is as we go throughout the week but at the moment it looks unlikely, he will play against London Broncos next week.”
On the left edge…
“I thought Niall Evalds was really good and then obviously Ken Sio attracts defenders. On the second to last try the defenders didn’t know whether to go for Niall or Ken. The directness of Jackson and the way he’s playing into the line as well stands defenders up and frees our guys up.”
On Lee Mossop…
“I don’t like to single individuals out, but I’d like to give a big shout to Lee Mossop who did sixty minutes in the front-row and probably could have gone a bit longer, but we felt the game was won at that point. There aren’t many front-rowers who can do that in the game. Last year was a big year for Lee Mossop in getting as much game time as possible following on from his surgery.”
On the Salford Red Devils fans…
“They were outstanding – we always seem to bring them to Huddersfield. Hopefully on the back of the win this week and the tries we scored they can come back to the The Salford Stadium next week against London Broncos to kick us on. There’s a really good feeling around the Club at the moment with the squad, supporters and community links we’re building so hopefully it’ll all fall into place for a strong crowd next week against London.”
The full press conference can be seen below:
