Ahead of tomorrow’s Good Friday clash with Catalans Dragons we take a look at the last time the French visited the The Salford Stadium in May of 2017.
The occasion was an emotional one with free entry being given to supporters provided they gave a donation to the Manchester Arena fund following the tragic Arena bombing in the week preceding the fixture.
And, the Red Devils rose to the occasion with a dominant 50-12 win over their French counterparts in front of 4287 strong at the The Salford Stadium which meant the Red Devils kept pressure on Castleford Tigers atop the Betfred Super League.
The visitors got off to a poor start with Remy Casty being sin-binned for a late challenge on Gareth O’Brien and It took just a minute for the Red Devils to take the lead with O’Brien being the man to take advantage. This was soon followed by a score from Josh Jones.
In the 22nd minute the fans broke into a round of applause to remember the 22 victims of the Manchester Arena bombing and fittingly the Red Devils crossed, and it was number 22 Kris Welham who went over the line.
Salford continued to assert their dominance in the first half with Niall Evalds and Ryan Lannon both finding their ways to the line. The Red Devils control carried over in the second forty as Kriss Brining burrowed his way over before Catalans got themselves off the mark thanks to Vincent Duport.
But, any hopes of a comeback were almost immediately quashed with a try of the year candidate from Robert Lui. The Salford half-back took a loose pass from the Dragons on his own 10m line before racing ninety metres and fending off Tony Gigot in the process.
Back-to-back tries from forwards Olsi Krasniqi and Mark Flanagan followed alongside seven goals from nine attempts by Michael Dobson to round off a convincing victory. Fouad Yaha scored a late consolation for the Dragons.
Salford Red Devils Head Coach Ian Watson said: “It was a great performance. We spoke this week about being a better team and improving from what we’ve done.
“We always felt if we did our job in the middle we could get them on the edge.
‘It was important for us to put on a performance like that, and put on a show, with everything that has gone on to support everything.
“People talk about it [the Manchester attack] and people discuss it but the big thing for us was we had to focus on our performance.”
The teams that day
Salford: O’Brien; Johnson, Jones, Welham, Evalds; Lui, Dobson; Tasi, Tomkins, Hasson, Murdoch-Masila, Hauraki, Krasniqi.
Interchanges: Flanagan, Lannon, Kopczak, Brining.
Catalans: Gigot; Thornley, Inu, Wiliame, Yaha; Walsh, Myler; Moa, Da Costa, Simon, Bousquet, Casty, Dezaria.
Interchanges: Doport, Albert, Seguier, Perez.
Remember, we want YOU to bring YOUR mate to tomorrow’s game against Catalans Dragons and get them to purchase on gameday!
Dr Marwan Koukash will then match your purchase and you can enter the draw to win your 2019 Season Ticket for FREE!
