In the context of this weekend’s fixture, it was a moment to celebrate, the moment when Chris Kendall blew his whistle for the kick off of Sunday’s Wigan v Salford Super League fixture, and we were all able to heave a huge sigh of relief that we were there, supporting a team proud to be representing the club bearing the name of Salford Red Devils.
It might not have been the side we had probably been expecting, when we had first glanced down the fixture list, at the start of the season, but it contained individuals from whatever level in the game they had risen to, and each and every one of them was out there to do their level best, and if they could manage it, beyond that.
At one end of the scale were the younger players, epitomised by James Shields, right through to the evergreen, Chris Hill, who had been omitted from the original squad, owing to injury, but who put his hand up to give a first half stint to the Salford cause.
If ever there were prizes for commitment, they all of them deserved every accolade that could be sent their way, as, for stretches of the game, they succeeded in containing the current Super League Champions, much to the delight of the travelling Salford faithful, and, delightfully, to the admiration of many of the Wigan fans.
For as long as the first twenty-three minutes, they were in the contest, limiting the Warriors to a mere four-points, from Wardle’s unconverted try, on the ten-minute mark, and in this period the Reds were able to give as good as they got, putting together a number of attacks of their own. In fact, on sixteen minutes they were rewarded with a goal-line drop-out, following a great chase to an end-of-set kick-in-goal.
Unfortunately, you only have so much energy to expound, and just going into contact with, or chasing after, players of the calibre of Nsemba, Mago, Field and French, is quite draining, and the final fifteen minute of the half saw the game slip away from the Red Devils as three further tries from Field, Wardle, and Nsemba, took the score to an unassailable twenty-two point, half-time score.
Even then, the half concluded with an impressive Salford attack, in which a fine break by Shane Wright, saw him send out an excellent pass to keep the move going thanks to the fine support of the players who kept with him.
In a similar second half attempt, Esan Marsters made great headway towards the Wigan line, only for his support to be thwarted short of the line.
By far, the closest that the team came to registering a score, was in the final minute, when the highly-talented Nathan Connell’s grounding was overturned by the video-referee, much to the dismay of the Salford contingent in the crowd, but also to the amazement, and possibly even the disappointment, of some of the home fans.
It has to be said that, in the context of the game, the Wigan club got everything just right. Of course, they went out to win the game to the best of their ability, but, with the exception of the twentieth minute sin-binning of Dupree, the whole game was played in a fair and amicable manner, while the club itself gave a warm and supportive welcome to all the visitors. This writer was told by one ardent member of the Wigan fraternity,
“Rugby League is a family, and we all stand by any member of that family whenever they are in difficulties.”
That attitude was evident throughout the ground as the Salford players were applauded both onto and off the field, for the warm up, and the start of each half.
