Inspired by the pre-match awareness that a victory would lift them into fourth place, above both St Helens and Catalans Dragons, the Salford Red Devils proceeded to produce their best performance of the season, in attack, with the total demolition of the Huddersfield Giants, in last Saturday’s penultimate home fixture of this season.
And the Red Devils could not have timed it better, coming a week after a below par participation the previous week against Leigh, at Magic Weekend. When any team wins by such a blow-out margin in Super League as fifty points, fingers are automatically pointed at the team on the receiving end, but this was certainly not always the case here, as was evidenced in the opening five minutes, when Huddersfield twice went close to scoring in the right corner, stretching the Salford defence to capacity in denying them.
Similarly, when they eventually had some reasonable amount of possession in the closing stages of the game, they not only troubled the Salford defence, they twice crossed for tries, and indeed they had had a couple of spells in the first half where they had also posed a threat to the Red Devils’ line.
The game, nevertheless, belonged almost entirely to the Reds, from the moment Jayden Nikorima shot through the Giants’ line on nine minutes, to set up Chris Atkin for the opening try, on his celebratory hundredth Salford appearance.
In fact, Nikorima went on to stamp his total authority on the half, giving fans an insight as to why he had been so immediately signed up after his release by Catalans, scoring two tries himself in the final five minutes up to the interval.
The first saw him combine beautifully with Ethan Ryan down the right flank not only being there to receive the inside pass for the try but having also been the one to put the winger in the clear, in the first place. He then rounded off the half with a most audacious jinking, individual run to the line, completely bewildering the defence which was made to look quite static.
The sin-binning of Andre Savelio, in the eleventh minute, proved significant not only for the two try-scoring opportunities taken by Ryan Brierley, in the first and last minutes of that ten minute spell, but also for the momentum and confidence it brought to the whole team, having by this point established an eighteen point lead.
Marc Sneyd’s decision to kick a forty-two metre penalty goal, on 34 mins was most sensible, putting them into a four score lead, which can so often be demoralising to opponents.
Indeed, Sneyd’s contribution did not rest solely with his ten successes from eleven attempts at goal. His end-of-set kick into the in-goal area had brought Brierley the first try of his hat-trick, he also played a significant role in a number of others, and on 52 mins turned Giants’ fullback, Lolohea, inside out as he changed direction after Brierley’s pass, to go in under the posts, for one of his own.
In fact, the second half was memorable solely for the truly enjoyable attacking play of the Red Devils as they added a further five tries to the five of the first half. Nikorima, having been such a thorn in the Giants’ side during the first half, received rather more attention in the second forty, but that appeared to free up Nene Macdonald, who came into his own as a result, to the extent that a second Huddersfield player received a ten-minute sin-binning for being unable to stop the centre in full flight without doing so with a high tackle.
Four minutes later, Macdonald was able to utilise the shortage of Giants’ defenders – compounded by a green card for Golding – to arc round on a curved run from Snyed’s pass, for his try.
Without doubt, however, the score that thrilled the home crowd the greatest of all was Harvey Wilson’s, on 45 mins. The speed with which he – a prop – covered the 35ms on receiving Sneyd’s pass, astounded everyone, not least Lolohea, who again was beaten with the utmost ease, and the lasting memory we all have of this game might well be the beaming smile of sheer delight he had on his face, as he was surrounded by his celebrating teammates, as he returned to the centre of the pitch.
It was then left solely to Brierley to complete his hat-trick on the back of a top class run-and-pass by Kallum Watkins, fifteen minutes from the end, and earn the fullback the Man of the Match award.
It would, however, be remiss to neglect the truly grand work produced by the Salford forwards in laying the platform for the victory. Every single one of them worked magnificently, and, merely as representatives of all of them, the names of Loghan Lewis, Brad Singleton, Joe Shorrocks and Joe Bullock deserve mention.
