Salford Red Devils welcome Wakefield Trinity to the The Salford Stadium in the Betfred Super League tomorrow afternoon, with the Round 16 clash presenting a huge opportunity to open a two-point gap on Willie Poching’s side.
After a week break for the players not on international duty, it’s full steam ahead for Paul Rowley’s side, as they look to climb up the table. The game against Wakefield begins a huge stretch of crucial fixtures for the Red Devils, with a Magic Weekend clash against Huddersfield Giants also on the horizon.
In the reverse fixture between the two sides, Salford almost pulled off a stunning second-half comeback. Despite trailing 24-4 at half-time, Rowley’s men emerged after the interval full of energy and scored four excellently worked tries.
However, their efforts were ultimately in vain, with a narrow 30-24 defeat a tough result to take having performed so well. Rhys Williams – who captained Wales last weekend – scored a brace that day, and has been named in Paul Rowley’s 19-man squad for Round 16.
Ahead of the highly-anticipated clash, Rowley has been speaking to the press about where the game could be won and lost.
Rowley said: “We played Wakefield at their place before and I think in the first-half our defence was poor – certainly on transitioning. We’ve got to be better because they are a team that scores plenty of points.
“I think we’ll get the opportunity to score points ourselves, so what we do defensively will be key and obviously keeping hold of the ball.”
Also, with the two sides locked on level points, Rowley knows there is no point in playing down the importance of this fixture and picking up the two points.
The head coach continued: “Ultimately, I won’t go down that track of saying this is just another game, it’s a big game and I think we all realise that. The opportunity is there for us to progress, but the jeopardy is still there too for both teams.
“So it’s got all the ingredients of a good game and what we need is the Salford crowd supporting us and winning us a few decisions as well. We want to win the 50/50s and it’s the supporters, the noise, that’ll help encourage them to come our way.”
Pre-match on Sunday, Salford will be hosting and participating in an LDSL festival at the The Salford Stadium. Following on from our clash with Wakefield, Lancashire and Yorkshire face off in the Academy Origin series, kick-off 5:15pm.
Round 16 tickets are valid for all of Sunday’s action and can be purchased HERE.
