Salford 28 Warrington 24 Match Report
We are, of course, all familiar with the terms ‘brace’ and ‘hat-trick’, when referring to the number of tries any one individual has contributed to their team’s scoreline, but probably much less so with that of ‘going nap’, which seldomly ever has the call to be used.
That is because whilst tallies of two and three tries is not an unusual occurrence, the fact that this term relates to no less than five, makes it far more difficult to achieve – there seems to be no such term relating to four – but that was the sensational achievement of Salford Red Devils’ College Academy’s right winger, Joe Griffiths, in their opening fixture of the season, at home to Warrington Wolves.
Not only was it a massive personal accomplishment, it also was the fundamental means for the whole team’s equally spectacular, second-half turn around, after having fallen behind, 6-18, at the interval, and then conceding a further six points, to 6-24.
It, therefore, seemed as unlikely, at that point, that the Reds would win, as it had seemed upon the first of Griffiths’s tries, on eight minutes, that he would be following it up with another four, since the physical prowess of the Wolves’ players had seen them dominate throughout the remainder of the half.
Despite the fact that it was not until the fifty-eighth minute that the home side were to increase that solitary first score, the turn around could possibly be traced back to a well-executed charge-down on a Wolves’ end-of-set kick, by second-row replacement, Zavier Dele Charley, nine minutes before the interval. The additional set of possession which this brought came very close to bringing a second try, and a great fillip either side of, and, one would suspect, during the half-time discussions.
The upshot was a vast improvement by the whole team in putting the visitors under pressure and forcing them into rather more errors than had hitherto been the case, though conceding a number of penalties did not help their cause early on.
It was straight from a scrum, on the Salford thirty, that Griffiths scored the try of the match, cutting through a small gap in the Wolves’ line, and then outpacing even the speediest of their three-quarters, to score under the posts, which was where he had grounded the ball for his first. Goal-kicker, Rhyley Hyde, slotted over his second conversion, and was also to be successful with the final two of his remaining attempts, all of which were also vital in securing the win.
This was followed up, a mere three minutes later, with another score in the corner, bringing the score to 16-24, and then on seventy minutes, a clever little chip over the defence by Hyde was collected by Griffiths to sale in between the posts, which was exactly where he finished off a great break from Charley, five minutes from the final whistle, after having supported it from its start.
