A tremendous second half performance by Salford Red Devils proved to be the decisive factor in last Saturday’s crucial home fixture against the Leeds Rhinos. In what must rank as one of their best forty minutes of the season, they turned what had, up to then, been a tit-for-tat, cut and thrust encounter with fortunes, hitherto, ebbing and flowing, particularly in the first thirty minutes, into a home side dominated contest.
Indeed, the opening spell was one which saw the visitors taking advantage of the sin-binning of Tim Lafai, for his tackle on Miller, as he landed on the ground having taken Marc Sneyd’s high bomb. Everything about it, certainly the timing, seemed to have been executed to perfection, but the fullback, on landing, ducked slightly and consequently was caught around the head.
Down, so soon, to twelve men, the Reds had then leaked a try, in the third minute, before they had even had chance to re-organise themselves, and a second, in the seventh, coming down the exposed flank, where Lafai would normally have been.
If Salford’s discipline had been in question, as a result of this incident, they still proved to be the more disciplined of the two sides with Leeds, like Castleford last week, having to cope, for not ten, but twenty minutes, a player short.
The first of these could not have come at a better time nor to a better player than Martin, with his then being missing for the attempted conversion of Croft’s 23rd minute score. This, then, enabled Salford, later, to take an 18-16 lead rather than merely drawing level. Ironically, within seconds of the resumption, Martin had returned to the fray.
Just as the Rhinos earlier had been able to exploit the numerical advantage, so now Salford were so able to do, with skipper, Kallum Watkins, going over for the first of his brace. It was so pleasing to see the player who works so hard throughout every game, and who also is so influential and reliable both on and off the field, gaining some reward, including that of Man of the Match, for all he contributes to the club.
It was also remarkable that the build-up to both of his tries, on 19 and 32 mins, were so similar, with the first starting with dummy half, Joe Shorrocks, and then Oli Partington’s delightful, short pass to put Watkins through. The second started with Joe Mellor, now the dummy-half, feeding Marc Sneyd, and on to Partington again, with that same little pass to put Watkins over again, to complete he brace.
It was no coincidence that the increase in pace in the Red Devils attack, coupled with the noticeable building of their dominance, coincided with the introduction of Mellor, whose darts from the play-the-ball appeared just at the time when the opposition’s defence, especially their markers, was beginning to tire, and he is proving to be one of the best acquisitions to the club during the last close season.
Two, nearly tries, in the run-up to the half time interval, were both thwarted. The first for an off-side at Sneyd’s bomb from which he regained the ball to cross the line, and then the video referee’s overturning the on-field call on Nene Macdonald’s grounding for an unfortunate double movement. The fact that they came so close, however, gave a good indication of what was to come during the second half.
What that turned out to be was a Salford dominance of virtually every aspect of the game, but particularly of field position. Using the same disciplined line speed, that had so contained the Castleford Tigers last week, the Red Devils were able to keep Leeds penned in their own forty for lengthy periods, limiting their periods of possession to one-off hit-ups, which were so much easier to defend against than the flamboyant, off-the-cuff, though sometimes wild, passing the Rhinos employed, on their infrequent sorties to the other end of the field.
Who would have thought, on 23 minutes, that they were not going to score another point? Yet that proved to be the case; not that the Reds managed to open up the Leeds defence other than once. That one came on 53 mins, as a result of excellent transition from defence into attack.
Fielded, initially by Ryan Brierley, play was taken over the six-tackle set to within 25m of the Leeds line, with the final play going from Mellor to Jayden Nikorima, who broke through the line, before returning the ball to Mellor to score.
The fact that Sneyd then continued his progress towards another accomplishment of a one hundred percent, goal-kicking record from the tee, then put the Reds ahead for the first time, on 53 mins, and it was he who would finish off the Rhinos with two further penalty goals – the second from 48 metres. In such a crucial high-profile encounter, it made perfect sense to utilise Super League’s best goal-kicker to carry out what he does best, at every opportunity.
Not, as we all know, that that is all he does, because his game management through kicks down field, also brought its rewards. He had peppered Handley with these throughout the first half and his first of the second half, on 41 mins, caused the winger to fumble his attempt to catch it, resulting in a knock-on. Thirty-five minutes later, he was caught out again, this time from Sneyd’s forty-twenty, both of which kicks gave the Red Devils yet further possession.
It is perhaps indicative of how the game had progressed that the very last act of the match was a Leeds pass – straight into touch.
And so with this well-earned and deserving victory Salford moved back to fourth place in the league, but this time as sole occupants. Very few, however, would have thought that they would still be there, twenty-four hours later, which they were thanks to London Broncos’ equally deserved slaying of the Catalans Dragons. Another Reds similar performance at St Helens would be most helpful in extending it even further.
