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   Salford City Reds 12 Catalan Dragons 24
by Nigel Roberts
At the Willows, Friday 5th March Both teams game into this game desperate for a win to kick-start their season with the French outfit keen to put last week’s 58-0 mauling at Wigan behind them. For their part the Reds were confident they could build on last week’s defensive display against the Bradford Bulls. The early exchanges were about even but a bright spell of Reds play was rewarded when a neat pass from Stefan Ratchford put Willie Talau in for a close range try. Ratchford also added the conversion for a 6-0 lead after 19 minutes. Four minutes later Dragons centre Chris Walker found a gaping hole in the Reds defence for an unconverted try (6-4). Walker then repeated the feat with a further try in almost the same spot (6-8). Seconds before the break, Mark Henry stole the ball in the tackle before sending winger Ashley Gibson scooting over for a try in the corner. Half-time came with the Reds fortunate to be holding a 12-8 advantage. The Reds started the second half with some enterprising rugby but the Dragons were the first to score with a dubious looking try through full-back Clint Greenshields. Gregory Mounis converted to edge the French ahead at 12-14. As the half progressed the Reds seemed to lose their way whilst the Dragons gained in composure. In the 59th minute the French scored when Setamaita Sa forced his way over. Mounis again converted for a 12-20 lead. Any thoughts of a Salford comeback were ended when Sebastien Rougin romped over for an easy try in the 75th minute which brought the French a 12-24 victory. Team:Fitzpatrick,Gibson, Henry, Talau, Broughton, Ratchford, Holdsworth, Boyle, Alker, Parker, Sibbit, Adamson, Swain. Subs: Leulai, J Smith, Littler, Sidlow. Attendance:3,002. Reds coach Shaun McRae was realistic in his after match comments: “The fans are entitled to be frustrated and agitated, but we are the same. The players are all down in the dressing room. “We tried hard and thought we could build on the last two weeks but we were never in it in the second half. “I didn’t think we were playing particularly well even when we led 12-8 at half-time. We were off the pace and needed an intensity lift which we didn’t get. We came up with too many errors and all their tries came off our mistakes. We defended well in the first half and that took its toll but we did not put Catalans under enough pressure. “ “Clearly we did not compete as well as in the last two weeks against Leeds and Bradford. I will certainly be considering changes for our next match at Harlequins next Sunday.” Photo: Stefan Ratchford tries to stop the Catalans centre Due to problems with spam only SalfordOnline members can now leave comments. Becoming a member of SalfordOnline only takes a minute, just hit the red Join Us button at the top right hand side of the page to create your Personal account. Got a news story? Need help with publicity for an event in Salford? Send it to newsdesk@salfordonline.com or call the SalfordOnline newsdesk on 0161 789 5377. |
