Salford Red Devils welcome the Catalans Dragons to the The Salford Stadium in Round 9 of the Betfred Super League this afternoon.
The Red Devils will be looking to get back to winning ways exactly a month since their last appearance in front of a packed AJ Bell crowd, where they beat Leeds Rhinos 26-12.
Despite a 32-18 defeat to the Warrington Wolves on Rivals Round, Salford have continued to show the attacking threat they possess, with Ken Sio remaining the joint top try-scorer in the Betfred Super League whilst Marc Sneyd sits in the top 10 for try assists.
Catalans Dragons – who sit second in the table – have won six and lost two of their opening eight games and players like Fouad Yaha will pose a huge threat to Salford, fresh from an 18-10 derby victory against Toulouse Olympique.
Speaking to the press last week, Paul Rowley has said he is looking forward to seeing and hearing a rocking Salford crowd on Monday to power his side towards a vital victory.
Rowley said: “Yeah, of course. We’ve hardly had any home games this year it feels like we’ve had the rough end of the stick regarding home fixtures. So, absolutely, good to be back and play in front of the fans.”
The Salford boss will have the opportunity to test himself against last season’s Betfred Super League Coach of the Year, Steve McNamara, who guided his side to their first-ever Grand Final in 2021 – losing out to St Helens at Old Trafford.
Against such a dangerous outfit, the team will have to be strong in defence and not let Catalans gain easy metres up the field. It’s a sentiment Rowley shares and thinks with the ball in hand, his side can cause problems.
The head coach stated: “I don’t think it’s about making metres up the field, it’s about stopping them making metres up the field. We’ve got some strong ball carriers, we’re good out of transition, we’ve got no dramas there – it’s going the other way where we start losing the arm wrestle. ”
Written by: Harry Siddall
