THE ORIGINAL RED DEVILS

MATCH REPORT – WARRINGTON WOLVES 36-20 SALFORD RED DEVILS (BETFRED SUPER LEAGUE ROUND 3)

Warrington Wolves produced a second-half comeback to beat Salford Red Devils 36-20 in Round 3 of the Betfred Super League.

Paul Rowley’s outfit started the game on the front foot and Tyler Dupree was the first to break Warrington’s defensive line with a positive, charging run.

The Red Devils were playing with a relentless intensity; potentially typified by Ryan Brierley tipping a neat grubber kick from George Williams back to Joe Burgess in his own in-goal area to charge out and start another attack.

Wire, however, opened the scoring with their next set of six. Williams sent a grubber into the left corner for Ben Currie to chase, with the number 11 stretching just ahead of Brierley to touch down.

Salford bounced straight back and got on the board through Ellis Longstaff. Oliver Partington did superbly to bounce his defender and tee up Andy Ackers; the hooker got it started through multiple hands and Burgess’ break on the left allowed the debutant some space to collect and slide over.

Rowley’s men found their groove and started to play the ball quicker and quicker. Ken Sio spotted a chance to intercept 20 metres out from our own try line and clung on to spring a rapid Salford attack.

Brierley was in support with open field, but he still had so much to do to hand his side the lead. Racing downfield, our number one jinked outside Matt Dufty to slide over in the right corner.

And it wasn’t long till Salford were over again. Marc Sneyd skipped across the Warrington line on the last and spotted a gap to squeeze through and extend the lead – converting his own try.

There was even time for Sneyd to add a penalty-goal before the break, after the hosts were penalised for a high tackle.

HALF-TIME: Warrington Wolves 6-20 Salford Red Devils

Warrington took control of the game at the start of the second 40, with Ashton getting them back into the game via an acrobatic finish in the left corner – despite the best efforts of Brodie Croft.

Salford were defending repeat set after repeat set on their own try line and showed incredible grit to come away unscathed at times, but the game changed when Brierley was sent to the sin bin for holding down.

Not even a minute later, Thomas Mikaele powered under the sticks and Stefan Ratchford converted to bring Wire within two.

Daryl Powell’s side were dominating the play and Williams played the ball quickly to skip a few challenges to find space on the right. His chipped kick was easily gathered by Josh Thewlis to go over unopposed.

It was the same source who extended Warrington’s advantage moments later. Watkins lost his footing and Williams was quick to spot the opportunity and slide over to the left of the sticks.

The game had got away from the Red Devils and Matt Dufty made sure of the two points by latching onto Peter Mata’utia’s offload.

Just like Mikaele’s effort earlier in the half, the referee decided to award Ratchford the opportunity to add two more in front of the sticks for a penalty when Dufty grounded the original try.

FULL-TIME: Warrington Wolves 36-20 Salford Red Devils

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