A truly magnificent performance, saw the Salford Red Devils follow up their away win at the Totally Wicked Stadium, in early March, with yesterday’s home victory to complete their first double over St Helens since the 1979/80 season, forty-four years ago.
Not only that, they also made it two doubles in a row, and against teams higher in the league than they, themselves, following up the previous week’s away defeat of Warrington. We had said this one would be tough, and it most certainly was with the Red Devils thrice having to come back from 6-0, 12-10, and 18-14 deficits.
We also said that a repeat of their performance in the victory over the Wolves, if they could manage it, might be sufficient to bring them the rewards, and, wow, did they manage to do just that, with the match-winning, try-of-the-game coming seven minutes from the final whistle, and their managing the remaining time superbly, keeping the Saints pinned down in their own half, for the majority of it.
Falling behind to Bell’s fifth minute converted try seemed to cause them little concern as they continued thereafter to repel the visitors’ early pressure, but it was not until twelfth minutes that they got within sight of the Saints’ line, forcing a goal-line drop-out as some reward.
They had to wait until a penalty, on 17mins, for a high tackle, gave them their best starting field-position, with Shane Wright reversing the initial direction of play and finding Deon Cross, unmarked, to go in at the corner.
Marc Sneyd’s failed attempt at obtaining a try by kicking the ball to his unmarked half-back colleague, Chris Atkin, did at least show the extent to which their partnership has developed, and indeed that was shown to greater effect in the way the pair linked to help set up the final try, with Sneyd’s pass enabling Atkin then to send out, what was assessed by some, as the most crucial pass in the line of the seven pairs of hands, involved in the move.
For Sneyd, though, the over-ruling of his ploy seemed to affect his next couple of attempts at goal, with his most unusually missing both, and then everything relying on his final conversion attempt to secure the win. His overall performance though was as effective as ever, as he organised and directed play around the field.
Salford’s wingers continued to impress with the next score seeing Deon Cross repeat not only his brace from the previous week but also the winning try itself from Sneyd’s pinpoint kick to the corner. Indeed, Cross was later voted our sponsor’s Man of the Match, for his stirring all-round performance on both attack and defence, alongside skipper, Kallum Watkins who received the same acknowledgement from Sky TV.
For his part Ethan Ryan was also impressive with his most significant contribution coming with his thirty metre run down his right flank, before passing inside to Chris Hankinson to complete the move with his touchdown for the day’s final score.
Once again, Hankinson’s contribution was well in excess of what might reasonably be expected of someone with limited experience in the role, and it was most fitting that he should be rewarded for it with the final try.
For fans of both sides, the second half was something akin to a ride on the big dipper, with hopes soaring and sinking in equal amounts over the forty, none so quickly changing as when Nene Macdonald’s try was overturned by the referee, as a result of two infringements – one from each side – and Salford being awarded the put-in at the ensuing scrum for St Helens’s initial knock-on.
For three matches now, Macdonald has been used as the ‘go to’ target for some of Sneyd’s high end-of-set, attacking kicks, and for the first time this brought success, with his palm backwards of the ball, where Watkins, having vied with Hankinson to collect it, claimed the score.
While Saints probably had slightly the better of the exchanges, in the second forty, with their scoring three tries to two, it was the four point advantage at half-time, as a result of Salford’s two tries to one in the first half, which stood them in such good stead to be able to go on and collect the two league points.
As for the rest of the side, they all covered themselves with glory for their sterling efforts throughout. Joe Mellor’s scoots at the play-the-ball, for example, have now begun to cause so many problems in opposition defences that they have become a significant nuisance value to the side.
And when they were not engaged in wave after wave of attack, such as the ten-minute period at the start of the second half, they were all a part of the tremendous defensive wall they put up, which so successfully limited the Saints’ scoring machine to less points than they needed even to draw.
So, with an international giving the rest of Super League a blank weekend this week, the lads will have a most deserved rest, but when they return, it will be to a significantly different challenge of getting themselves fully motivate for seeing off one of the lower sides in the league, Hull, who, themselves, have made noticeable strides in recent weeks. A large vociferous crowd would be a welcome addition to their motivation.
