Salford Red Devils 40 Bradford Bulls 16
In what must be one of the most remarkable of coincidences, Salford Red Devils’ Reserves followed up their first-team counterparts’ fourth round Challenge Cup victory over the Bradford Bulls, by treating their fans to a winning, opening, home league fixture against the very same club.
The Red Devils gave their visitors no time at all to settle, when, in the sixth minute, after two initial waves of attack, hooker, Finley Yates, darted over from dummy half. Jack Gatcliffe’s conversion attempt, unfortunately, hit the post, but he had better success seven minutes later when he landed the goal from Charlie McCurry’s fine try under the posts, from his superbly angled run.
With a ten-point lead, Salford’s dominance looked unstoppable, but a Bulls’ break, down their right edge on 23 mins, put them in good field position, and, with four back-to-back sets from two set-restarts and a penalty, had enough possession to force an opening for a converted try under the posts.
Without anyone, other than the Bradford players, realising it, the momentum of the game had changed completely, and within four minutes they were back under the Salford sticks again, after they had failed to deal with an in-goal kick, for a second six-pointer, to put them two points in the lead.
It is in such situations as this, that every member of the team needs to refocus themselves and step up to the mark, and to their credit the Salford players did exactly that. Their reward was almost instantaneous, and on the half-hour, they produced the most attractive piece of rugby of the match that far, when a splendid break by right centre, Josh Wagstaffe, superbly supported by three others, from whom he selected Jack Spencer for an inside pass which put him between the posts, and the Red Devils back in the lead, at 16-12.
Just as they had followed up their first score quite quickly, with what was to be McCurrie’s first try, so, on 33 mins, they replicated the same outcome, from the self-same scorer, after some impressive approach work, and Gatcliffe continued to take advantage of the straight-forward kicks from the tee, for his third goal.
With confidence now fully restored, there was still time for one further try before half-time from winger, Ethan Fitzgerald, in the left corner, to give the home side a seemingly unassailable 26-12 lead, going into the dressing-room.
Welcome as Fitzgerald’s final contribution of the first half had been, his first of the second half was rather less so, as he was sin-binned for contact with the head, in a tackle, and things suddenly looked a little more ominous. There was no cause for concern, however, as Scott Egan offloaded the ball as he spun round in a tackle, to fullback, Nathan Connell, who, having first passed the ball to Egan, then received it back, as he ran around the back of the attempted tackle, to go over in the corner. 30-12
The deficit of a player for ten minutes, however, was inevitably going to take its toll, and on 53 mins Bradford gained an overlap on their left, to score out wide, but two late tries from Sam Hill off Nathan Connell’s absolutely great pass out-wide, saw him come right round towards the posts on 76 mins, and prop, Jamie Redcliffe unceremoniously charged his way through the Bulls’ defence, to give Wagstaffe the chance to ring down the curtain, with his fourth successful conversion.
Whilst most of us will revel in the forty points the Reds produced, assistant coach, Alex Davidson, was more delighted with their defence.
“They showed a ruthlessness in defence, which is absolutely necessary, and which had been missing in our first match, last week, at Castleford. Not only that, they dealt with adversity, far better, which also had been lacking in that game. Today, they not only dealt with it, they overcame it almost instantaneously, when Bradford took the lead in the first half, and then later when we were reduced to twelve men.
“Two of our players Finlay Buckley and Sam Hill are only young academy players but they both made great contributions, particularly in defence, when they came on, as did Finley Yates and James Shields.
“Charlie McCurrie’s eighty-minute display, including two tries, was outstanding considering he had been in the first team squad the night before. Although he only came on towards the end, the emotional effect of just being there and expecting to be called to go on at any given motion, is in itself quite draining. It is greatly to his credit that he turned out less than twenty-four hours later, to put in an absolutely stellar performance.”
SALFORD
Nathan Connell, Scott Egan, Josh Wagstaffe, Jack Stevens, Ethan Fitzgerald, Sean Murray, Jack Gatcliffe, Jamie Redcliff, Finley Yates, Leunbou Bardyel-Yates, Charlie McCurrie, Sam Hill, Lucas Coan
Replacements
John Hutchings, James Shields, Finlay Buckley, Logan Lagar
18th Player Morgan Barraclough-Watson
