Salford 26 Sheffield Eagles 6 Match Report
A hat-trick of thrilling tries from Salford stand-off, Michelle Davis, was the foundation for Salford Red Devils’ ladies’ team eventually to run out comfortable winners, in Sunday’s home fixture with a game Sheffield Eagles side, which, for much of the encounter, matched their hosts in protracted arm-wrestles, on some occasions close to the Red Devils’ line.
Indeed, it was the visitors who were first to break the initial one, with their opening score on twelve minutes. A Salford handling error on the half-way line gave the visitors the opportunity to build pressure and then a set-restart gave them additional possession to open up the Reds’ defensive line to cross to the left of the posts, and duly convert it from the kicking-tee.
It was the home side, however, which had the match winners, and an Eagle’s error from the restart gifted them possession, and in less than a minute Davis had spotted the slightest of gaps and had nipped through, leaving two defenders clutching thin air, thus enabling Sam Evans’s conversion to bring the scores level.
Another of her induvial efforts, on 25 mins, was responsible for putting the Red Devils into a lead, which they were not to lose, thereafter. Her change of direction – turning from going left back towards the right edge – wrongfooted the Sheffield defenders as she arced round to go over out wide and bring up the half-time score of 10-6.
The second half proved to be all Salford’s, at least as far as the scoreboard was concerned. On 47 mins, Davis completed her hat-trick, when she backed up a great break by second rower, Tina Millan, to canter over between the posts for a well worked try, goaled by Evans.
If the Red Devils thought that the game was as good as won, they were in for a shock as the visitors commanded possession to pile the pressure on the Salford line. That is when your defence has to prove to be as good as your attack in order to withstand it, and that is how it proved to be, with the Yorkshire side being denied throughout, most significantly when they were held-up over the line on 62 mins.
Two minutes later, Alex Simpson, temporarily moved from fullback to centre, scythed through from deep to score close to the corner for another fine, unconverted try to put Salford 20-6 in front, after good hands from five players had opened up the opportunity for her. This was merely typical of the hard work every other member of the team had been putting in, throughout the game, to pave the way for the scorers to have their opportunities.
The final try of the afternoon was started with Davis making a clean break before handing on to right centre, Grace Wray, to complete the scoring, with her coming right along the in-goal area, to ground between the posts and give Evans a simple task of kicking the conversion.
Nevertheless, they still needed to maintain that rock-solid defence to keep their line, for the half, intact to the end, as the visitors sought to end on a high.
With two more of the regular season’s fixture remaining, the players will travel to Dewsbury, at the start of next month, before entertaining Castleford, in the last, a week later, at the Salford Community Stadium.
SALFORD
Simpson, Miller, Washington, Wray, Kelly, Davis, Corcoran, Egan, Evans, Bagguley, Millan, McVernon, Morris
Interchanges:
Hickey, Wicks, Webb, Parton-Sotomayor
