The beauty of the Challenge Cup is that each round provides something of a break, away from the week in week out pressure of Super League fixtures, and, certainly for those sides whose season has not quite been going according to plan, it presents a different challenge and an added dimension in the form of different opponents from outside Super League, at seldomly visited venues .
Certainly, it seems to be providing the Salford Red Devils with such, for following upon their third-round tie against the Midlands Hurricanes at the Alexander Stadium, which had got the season off to an encouraging start, last Friday evening they entertained the Bradford Bulls in their home fourth round tie.
As for the Bulls themselves, they had already enjoyed a splendid home victory over Super League opposition, in the form of Castleford, and, under the guidance of former Salford Head Coach, Brian Noble, were looking to progress even further, at the Reds’ expense. Nor did the past Salford links end with the coach, with former Academy players, Matty Gee and Kieran Gill lining up to face their former club.
If the visitors had been going to spring a surprise win, one would have thought that they needed to have got off to a good start, but in fact it was the Red Devils who did that, not only through Esan Marsters’s opening, unconverted try in the fifth minute, but by the way they dominated possession and field position, capitalising on a number of the Bulls’ handling errors, whilst completing their own sets and occasionally forcing back-to-back sets.
Surprising it was, therefore, that not only were they unsuccessful in their endeavours to extend that lead, but that when the next try eventually did come, it was the visitors who went over, not for one try but for two, back to back.
The turnaround had started on 20 mins, with a clean break from Bradford, down the middle, which saw Ryan Brierley sprint back to pull off a fantastic try-saving tackle, centimetres from his try-line, only for him to be dispatched to the sin-bin for holding down, and thereby denying them a second chance of a score.
Five minutes later, a mix-up in collecting Bradford’s kick-off, following Kai Morgan’s successful penalty goal, gave the Bulls possession from the resultant goal-line drop-out, and with numerical on-field advantage they went on to cross twice, in as many minutes, to take a 6-10 lead, which they were able to take into the dressing room with them at half time.
The half time interval probably came at an opportune moment for the visitors, as the Red Devils had managed to regain their composure, and thirteenth player, to, then, regain their ascendency by putting some significant pressure on the Bradford line. The nearest that they were able to come to a score, however, was a last minute, disallowed try by Chris Atkin, owing to an obstruction in the build up to it.
The uncertain nature of the eventual outcome was underlined throughout the third quarter of the game, with three tit-for-tat tries, on 43, 53, and 62 minutes. When Ryan Brierley crossed for the first, after some extremely clever footwork, it looked as though the Reds had turned the corner. They had dominated possession and field position for over ten minutes, penning the visitors in their twenty-metre area, when suddenly, in one set only, Bradford forced two overlaps – one on either flank – the second of which saw Gill put into space, on the left side of the field, and he raced, unchallenged, to restore their lead, at 12-16.
It was to take a further nine minutes for the Red Devils to overtake their visitors for one final time, with Jayden Nikorima’s coming as a result of several sets of attack on the Bulls’ line. The final fifteen minutes belonged to Salford, helped by Kai Morgan, the noteworthy player, not only for his play in general, but for his significant hundred percent goal-kicking contribution from five attempts, while Ethan Ryan wrapped up his fine return to the side, with the concluding try.
It is very seldom, in the modern game, that a prop forward will play for the full eighty minutes, but, on Friday night, two such players, Jack Ormandroyd and Chris Hill, most remarkably, did just that. The endeavours of young Harvey Wilson were also notable, with his punching well above his weight in everything he undertook, while the Reserves’ Player of the 2024 Season, Charlie McCurry, enjoyed the experience of, albeit briefly, partaking in his home first team debut.
So, with a place in the quarter final draw now firmly booked, an attractive home tie would be just the appetite wetter, to boost everyone’s morale, over the coming weeks.
