A spirited Salford Red Devils were narrowly beaten 16-26 by Hull Kingston Rovers at the The Salford Stadium this evening in Round 5 of the Betfred Super League.
After a cagey opening 10 minutes, with both sides conceding multiple dangerous penalties, it was Hull KR who struck first, with Elliot Minchella pouncing on a mistake in the Salford backline following a neat grubber kick.
The Red Devils tried to hit back and almost did when Ken Sio was inches away from a Ryan Brierley low kick. But it was KR who made their attacking pressure count when Matty Starton darted over the try line – the extras converted by Jordan Abdull.
It went from bad to worse for Salford minutes later, when Ryan Lannon was sent to the sin-bin for a high tackle.
Moments before half-time, Mikey Lewis took advantage of confusion in the Salford backline and chipped the ball over the top before slamming down a third Hull KR try.
Half-time: Salford Red Devils 0 – 18 Hull KR
A re-energised Salford emerged for the second 40, with some neat passing creating an overload on the right and allowing Ken Sio to touch down his 7th Betfred Super League try of the season.
Just ten minutes later they cut the gap again, with Shane Wright first to Sneyd’s grubber kick down the left.
Sneyd was the man who continued the fightback, intercepting a loose KR pass and running 70 metres down the field, before cutting inside and offloading to the supporting Joe Burgess to go over – with Sneyd’s extra’s cutting the gap to two.
However, the hosts responded to Salford’s pressure and Abdull’s high kick was picked out of the sky by Frankie Halton and offloaded to Lewis for his second try of the game.
Full-time: Salford Red Devils 16 – 26 Hull KR
Written by: Harry Siddall
Salford: Brierley, Sio, Cross, Lafai, Burgess, Croft, Sneyd, Akauola, Ackers, Vuniyayawa, Wright, Greenwood, Addy, Taylor, Lannon, Ormondroyd, Gerrard.
Hull KR: Dagger, Wood, Keinhorst, Kenny-Dowall, Hall, Lewis, Abdull, Garratt, Parcell, King, Halton, Linnett, Minchella, Vete, Hadley, Storton, Litten.
Salford tries: Sio (42’), Wright (55‘), Burgess (61‘)
Hull KR tries: Minchella (14’), Storton (32’), Lewis (39’, 68’)
Salford goals: Sneyd (2/3)
Hull KR goals: Abdull (4/4)
Kull KR penalty-goals: Abdull (1/1)
Referee: J. Smith
