Salford Red Devils 22 Leigh Leopards 38 Match Report
The fifty-seventh minute sin-binning of fullback, Ethan Fitzgerald, for a head-high tackle, proved to be the turning point, in what had hitherto been a closely contested encounter, with the Red Devils the dominant side, for the greater part.
This was not because it reduced the Salford side down to twelve men – it didn’t; it reduced them to eleven as a consequence of the earlier, total dismissal of hooker, Finley Yates, close to half time, for dissent.
In truth, the twelve men who took to the field for the start of the second half did extremely well for the first fifteen minutes and even extended their 18-12 half-time lead to 22-12, in the 43rd minute, when second rower, Lucas Coan, collected a high, end-of-set bomb, to cross in the right hand corner, for his second try of the game.
A further depletion in numbers for a ten-minute spell, however, was, as it would have been for any team, just too great a setback, with gaps in the defensive line appearing solely through shortage of numbers to cover the width of the field. These were then exploited by the Leopards, to put themselves 22-32 in front, by the time numbers were restored to twelve, though the remaining, valiant eleven endeavoured to do all they could to limit the flow.
It had all been so different in the first half, when, despite the visitors taking an early six-point lead, with a try in the left-hand corner, the Red Devils were swift to respond. Leigh were forced into a handling error in their own twenty, in the sixth minute, and an attack direct from the scrum put left winger, Joe Coope-Franklin, over in the corner for an unconverted try.
A fifteen minute, set-for-set arm-wrestle, was broken with a fine run by scrum-half, Jack Stevens, to set up position close to the Leigh line, and Lucas Coan was able to scoot over from a quick play-the-ball, for his first score, which put the Red Devils in front for the first time, 8-6.
Stevens was the crucial figure once again, on the half-hour, when he kicked a fine 40-20, which led directly to loose forward, Jamie Shields, crossing between the posts giving Jack Gatcliffe a straight-forward conversion, to take the score to 14-6.
The first sign that this might not indeed prove to be the Reds’ day came six minutes from half-time, when Bardyel Wells, who, from his first moment of introduction from the bench, had spent his time wreaking havoc in the Leopards’ defence, set off on a tremendous run through and around the defence down the left wing only for this to end with his suffering a serious-looking shoulder injury, in the cover tackle.
His withdrawal seemed to inspire the visitors, and they not only took immediate advantage of possession to score their second converted try to double their points’ tally, they also started to make themselves a little more dominant.
It was, however, Salford who had the final mention on the scoreboard thanks to an interception try, from Jack Gatcliffe, under the posts, which he duly converted.
Whilst obviously being disappointed, coach, Stuart Wilkinson was with the loss, he had much praise for his players’ endeavour:
“I felt that we were the better team for so much of the game, and really had been capable of winning. The depletion in numbers was a considerable obstacle to that, but I was extremely pleased with the way the group stuck to their task, and didn’t fold. They showed everyone there, that, as a group, they are most resilient, whilst in Charlie McCurry we had a fantastic leader.
“The learning point from all this now is to look at the reason for how they got into that situation, and to avoid doing so again.
“Losing Bardyel-Wells, probably for some considerable period of time, was another blow to us, as he has been in tremendous form, all season. The rest of the team, nevertheless, continued playing for all they were worth, and their character shone through it all.”
SALFORD
Fitzgerald, Coope-Franklin, B Glover, Wagstaffe, Egan, Gatcliffe, Stevens, C Glover, Yates, Lagar, Coan, McCurrie, Shields
Interchanges
Murray, Bardyel Wells, Barraclough-Watson, Hope
