It was the dream start we had all hoped for, over the forty-eight hours since the team, comprised, for the first time this season, of our first team players, had been announced, and, for the following twenty-five minutes, we all revelled in the team holding the lead over the visiting Leeds Rhinos, in this, their first home fixture of the season.
What a way to start, with a magnificent forty-twenty from Marc Sneyd to end the first set, and the resultant second set being completed by Kallum Watkins’s crossing the line to the right of the posts, after skipping out of a would-be, Rhinos’ attempted tackle, and Sneyd’s tacking on the straightforward conversion.
Possibly, had this been backed up with a further score, it might have set them up for an impressive victory, but, unfortunately this was not to be, as the Rhinos strengthened their defence, and managed to stave off a couple of further attacks on their line.
The turning point in the game came as early as the tenth minute, when a lost ball in a tackle, midfield, early in the tackle count, set the visitors up with possession in the Salford half, and they were able to start to build their dominance, which was to become the story of the remainder of the game.
It has to be acknowledged that Leeds played very well indeed, and were unrecognisable from the team, which had lost at Wakefield the previous week. This time they played to their strengths, and asserted their physical prowess, in the forwards, to the full, patiently laying the platform for their backs to launch wave after wave of attacks at the Salford defence.
This was evidenced both by the amount of time they were in possession and by their dominating field position in the Salford half. In fact, the Reds found it quite difficult to make yardage coming away from their own line, with debutant, Chris Hill, being the greatest threat to the confident Leeds defensive line. Overall, the Rhinos’ made far greater inroads into the Salford line, throughout the remainder of the game.
In the context of the build up to the game, much of this was hardly surprising, with the Red Devils having been completely unaware as to whether or not they would be taking the field until two days before the match, and that coming on the back of their league opener at St Helens, heartbreakingly being snatched away from them close to match day, after they had so hyped themselves up for it, since their friendly there, three weeks earlier.
Leeds, on the other hand, had had that away fixture at Wakefield, in which to find their feet, scrape off the rust, and get their early season nerves and errors out of the way, on their way to becoming battle hardened. At this time in the season, every match is a step forward towards peak performance, and for anyone to be a match behind everyone else is quite a handicap, as Leigh, last year, and Huddersfield, previously, had discovered, when their first-round opponents were involved in the World Club Challenge.
Not that there were not any promising signs from the Salford team. That opening, for a start, was the best that could be asked of any side. Marc Sneyd’s kicking game, as it always is, was outstanding, with not just one, but two wonderful forty-twenties, the second coming at the start of the second half, in almost complete replication of the one at the start of the game.
Undoubtedly, their best move of the game came on sixty-five minutes, when a second break down the right wing, by Nene Macdonald, saw his pass inside to the supporting Jayden Nikorima continue a truly splendid attack, which included another debutant, Esan Marsters, and Shane Wright.
It might not have brought a try, but it certainly gave the fans something to cheer about, reflecting the high quality of attractive rugby we have come to admire, and even expect of the Salford Red Devils. Hopefully, given a couple of weeks in which to catch up in the intensity and physicality stakes, there will be far more of this to enjoy as the season progresses
