Woolf’s pack open with a victory

of a twinge but we don’t think anything serious or anything worry about.

“But with his history we need to be smart.”

Woolf had outstanding performances from Jonny Lomax and James Roby, with Theo Fages’ kicking game causing his former team problems all night.

“The one thing I wanted was for our blokes to show tonight was a real hunger for the contest throughout and I thought we were really good in that department,” Woolf

STEVE MCNAMARA and Tony Smith have been team-mates, been relegated and promoted together and coached England together.

But this afternoon they will put their friendship aside to get their respective clubs off to a winning start in Super League.

Their relationship dates back to playing it’s to added. “We did a good job not allowing them to frustrate us, if we did it could have been a different result.”

Both sides looked like they could have used more than the one pre-season friendly they each had in a scrappy first half littered with errors as the new season creaked into life.

The Red Devils were undone by their own errors as they trailed 13-0 at the break – mistakes led directly to tries by wingers Tommy Makinson and Regan Grace for the home side.

Last year’s Grand Final hero Jack Welsby – deputising at full-back for the injured Lachlan Coote - added a drop goal right on half-time, before

Salford briefly threatened a comeback after the restart.

Krisnan Inu finished a sublime Tui Lolohea pass, but it proved a false dawn as Percival and Kevin Naiqama capitalised on another Salford mistake.

Alex Walmsley completed the scoring on the night with what became his customary try last season – both him and his side will take some stopping in 2021.

Salford boss Richard Marshall, after seeing his side lose his first game in charge, said: “I’m sure we won’t be the last team they put a score like that against.

“And this won’t define our season – we played them at the same stage last season and conceded 48 points.”