Head Coach, Paul Rowley, says he is proud of his team despite the loss against Leeds Rhinos.
Salford and Leeds went head-to-head at Salford Community Stadium on Saturday, but the Rhinos were the ‘dominant’ side and came out with a 32-6 victory.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Rowley reflected on his side’s performance and pinpointed areas of weakness that they will work on for future games.
“We were okay at the beginning and then we lost our way. We looked out on our feet at the end, we looked absolutely shattered.
“And I guess one follows the other, but our completions – we won’t win games at, I think we were in or around 65%. We won’t win games at that.
“We know what target we need to hit in completions, and we topped the league last year in terms of highest completion rate so that’s below our standards.”
Rowley continued on to talk about how the opposition played throughout the game in comparison to his own side: “I thought we started well, but I thought, after about the first 20 minutes, I thought Leeds dominated both of the areas,” he continued.
“They completed high and they were physically dominant across the board, and absolutely deserved the manner of the victory that they got.”
This week saw Dario Berta’s ownership of the club finalised which brought along the removal of the sustainability cap on Rowley’s team selection.
Today was the first game of the season with a full strength team available and only showed a glimpse of how the team will be able to perform throughout the season. Rowley commented on his delight at having his team back in the game.
“I’m actually really proud of the lads. You know, I’m chilled and I just said that to them in there,” our Head Coach said.
“We don’t accept mediocracy and we’re sat in there with an awkward silence because we don’t like losing. But, you know, what we do get out of it is, we got here intact together – and, you know, you look around that dressing room and we’ve got a good group of lads.”
Looking forward to the rest of the season, Rowley is preparing for the challenges ahead. One of these challenges comes just this week as we have the short turn around of a Thursday match against Hull KR for round three of the Super League.
“You know what, with everything, that’s a real character test, and I love character tests!
“And so we’ll look forward to the short turn around and the test of character on Thursday. Like I’ve said before, every time we take to the field now is a bonus for us, and we’ll just keep working hard to get where we need to be to be.”
