Paul Rowley has said he and his staff will always remember his ‘special’ opening Betfred Super League game, with his Salford Red Devils side beating Castleford Tigers 26-16 at the Mend-A-Hose Jungle stadium last Friday.
With Castleford tipped for a successful campaign under the leadership of Lee Radford, it was always going to be a tough test for the Red Devils to get a result, but their grit in defence and impressive attacking transitions was too much for the Tigers.
Tries from Ken Sio, King Vuniyayawa and Deon Cross – all in the first 40 minutes – gave Salford a commanding lead and were backed up by some cool kicking by the returning Marc Sneyd.
Rowley handed out Salford debuts to a range of players, but in his post-match press conference, he himself was asked how it felt to take charge of a Betfred Super League dugout for the first time.
He said: “I’m enjoying it, it’s good and today was special. I was just saying to Kurt, my assistant, that we’ll always remember this day, this will always stick in our head, the first game and it feels like rugby’s back times two.
“Everybody’s back out, brought a friend and it just feels like we’re back on it now – rugby league is back in a big way.”
Up next for the Red Devils is their first home game of the season, with Betfred Super League newcomers Toulouse Olympique visiting the The Salford Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Looking ahead to that game, Rowley admitted he knows the opposition will be targeting his side as a potential game to pick up points, but he believes the team still have another gear to find, despite such a classy performance on Friday.
“They’ll be saying the same. If they’re targeting games they’ll be saying Salford – everyone’s been saying Salford, Toulouse and Wakey are the three that will battle it out.
“So, Toulouse will have us firmly fixed as a winnable game and why not, it’s Super League and I believe anybody can beat anybody.
“Again, I’d like to reiterate I don’t think we played anywhere like we can do today but we’ve got some ingredients and character traits that are pretty good, so we’ll need to prep really hard for Toulouse and the boys know we need to be at our best to beat them.”
Show your support for the Red Devils on Sunday and purchase a ticket HERE for our Round 2 clash with Toulouse Olympique, kick-off 3pm at the The Salford Stadium.
Written by: Harry Siddall
Image credit: Steve McCormick
