Salford opened up their quest to go one further than last year's Challenge Cup Final defeat with what turned out to be a comfortable victory over Widnes Vikings, a team from the Championship, the tier below Super League.
Given the gulf between Super League and the Championship as well as the reaction after the Red Devils performance in their last match, a Widnes victory was never ever really going to happen. Given it being Grand National weekend a Vikings victory would have been akin to a 100-1 shot winning at Aintree.
However, Salford's performance was a vast improvement upon their outing last week against Hull FC in Super League. There was much more cohesion in their play, devil in their running and a more positive attitude seemed to emanate from the field.
Unlike Salford, Widnes had not suffered defeat this season, comfortably winning their round one and round two Challenge Cup matches to set up the Salford game. However, their previous outing over the Easter weekend had seen them squander a 14 point lead with ten minutes to go and draw 30-30 with the Newcastle Thunder in their first league game of the season. Ironically the Newcastle Thunders Director of Rugby is none other than Salford born Denis Betts a former coach of the Vikings and one of a number of players from Salford's catchment area whom the Red Devils failed to sign as a youngster.
With the late collapse of the Vikings in their game against the Thunder, observers generally felt that the game today may have been a tight affair for the first-half, Salford's superior fitness would see them pull away to victory.
First Half
The Red Devils made a number of changes from last week's performance which saw the debut of Darcy Lussick, who made some good runs and, on form, will add some steel and go-forward to the Red Devils' pack.
The visitors started brightly. Being controlled by scrum half and ex-Red Devil Matty Smith, they spread the ball wide, ran hard and on five-minutes they went close with winger Owen Buckley being stopped short of the line. On the next play a knock-on from a cross-field kick saved the Reds blushes as the Vikings had a try ruled out.
The Red Devils gradually played themselves into the half and their first break of any note led to them scoring the game's first points. Jack Ormondroyd, who had an impressive game, found himself in space drawing the Widnes full-back Daniel Hill, and he found the supporting Morgan Escare who scored under the posts. Krisnan Inu kicked the conversion for the Red Devils to lead by 6 points to 0 after ten-minutes.
Surprisingly, given that most independent observers before the game felt Widnes would compete up to a least half-time, the Red Devils quickly ran in further tries both scored by Matt Costello and both converted by Krisnan Inu for the Reds to lead 18-0 after twenty-minutes.
The game was effectively over, and to be fair the Vikings did not give up and some excellent Salford defence on their own line kept the visitors at bay after a period of sustained pressure. On thirty-minutes a Widnes dropped ball was scooped up by Jack Ormondroyd who again fed Morgan Escare. After a 50-metre pursuit to the line the French International was run down by the Widnes defence, trying to score with every play. Escare threw a speculative pass to Tui Lolohea, which was correctly ruled as being forward and the play broke down.
Widnes had a further bout of pressure which resulted in them going close, and on two occasions going across the line for play to be pulled back. At this point something had to give and the rugby gods favoured Salford. With Salford deep in their own half, Welsh winger, Rhys Williams broke the Widnes defence and after drawing the full-back passed to Tui Lolohea who evaded a despairing tackle to score under the posts, with Inu knocking over the conversion to take the score to Salford 24 Widnes 0 just a few minutes before the interval.
To their credit Widnes kept going and just before half-time Daniel Hill scored a try that their play had deserved. With the conversion missed the half time score was Salford 24 Widnes 4.
Second Half.
Any hopes of a close second half were shattered in the first set of six after the break. Perhaps stung by the Widnes try, Red Devils full-back Morgan Escare broke down the field. Although a desperate Widnes defence brought him down short of the line, it gave Salford the opportunity to set up camp on the visitor's line. Despite some valiant defence by the Vikings, the Salford attack forced two drop outs and eventually Declan Patton scored by the posts. Inu kicked his fifth conversion from as many attempts.
Within a minute of the re-start Salford had scored their sixth try. This time the Widnes defence opened up and Andy Ackers went over to score. Inu with another successful conversion and the score was 36-4 in favour of the Red Devils.
With the Red Devils rampant it was merely a case of how many would they score. In total Salford added a further six tries, with four coming in the last ten-minutes. The Vikings, despite their best efforts, crumbled and their resistance fell away.
Seb Ikahihifo steam rolled over three-Widnes defenders to score, after a Salford attacking kick had been spilled by Owen Buckley. Inu converted to take the score out to 42-4
Kallum Watkins touched down next to the sticks after some excellent work by Pauli Pauli who, whilst standing in the tackle, offloaded to the centre to score. Inu kept up his conversion streak which made the score 48-4.
Salford's fifty came up when Jake Ormeroyd capped an excellent performance with a try after breaking the Widnes defensive line, racing 25 metres to score, Inu again kicked the conversion to take the score 54-4.
Within a few minutes the Reds were in again. Some good work by the halves, and being honest a blatant forward pass, set Rhys Williams off down the wing to score the tenth try. Inu this time missed the conversion, blotting his 100% record for the day. 58-4.
On 78 minutes Salford broke the 60 points barrier, marching easily up field with some good centre play by Matt Costello setting up Morgan Escare to score again, with Krisnan Inu kicking the conversion to make the score 64-4.
The scoring was still not over, and with the last play of the game, after moving up field, half-back Chris Atkins scored a deserved try. Inu surprisingly missed the kick for a full-time score of 68-4
Post-Match Analysis
The Red Devils performance was much better than the previous week, even taking into account playing opponents from a lower division, the whole performance was positive. The forwards dominated in defence and made good yardage pushing the Widnes defence back when they had the ball. This allowed the backs the space to play.
I was critical of the last tackle options against Hull FC, and the kicking game today was much better; kicks were not aimless they had purpose putting pressure on the opposition, which directly resulted in at least one try.
At times in the second half Pauli Pauli was unplayable as the Viking defenders struggled to stop him. His runs were damaging and his offloads were dangerous. Hopefully, Pauli Pauli will realise how good he can be at this game - he has the skill, size and talent to be one of the best forwards in the world and fulfil the potential that marked him out as one to watch when he first broke into Paramatta's first team in the NRL. Salford fans will remember how destructive Ben Murdoch-Masila was for the Red Devils, and Pauli Pauli can be that and more. No matter where he is on the field there should always be players supporting him.
The Reds need to take the performance from today and repeat it against Catalans next. We need to see this level of aggression and dominance against Super League opposition continuing next week.
Words and photos by Gareth Lyons
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