Salford sense ‘opportunity’

SALFORD coach Ian Watson wants to see his side have ‘learned some lessons’ when they take on the Giants this Thursday.

Watson was a frustrated man after watching his side leave themselves with too much to do following a disappointing first-half performance and losing 26-16 at home to Wigan.

“The first half, for whatever reason, wasn’t us and we spoke about a response at half-time,” Watson said.

“We’ve got to be better than that. The first half was poor, we bombed a few opportunities and that’s when we need to dig in and grind it out.”

The Red Devils lost centre JuniSa’u and stand-off Robert Lui with head knocks early in the game and Watson admitted they were blows from which they never fully recovered.

“It disrupts you a little bit,” Watson said.

“Wigan started getting on a roll and played a bit too fast for us.

“We’ve got to perform like we did in the second half for 80 minutes. It will be a good opportunity against Huddersfield next Thursday to see if we have learned our lessons.”

Salford will still be without firstchoice second-row pair Weller Hauraki and Ben Murdoch-Masila through injury for the next match, while Australian stand-off Todd Carney is currently waiting in Sydney for his visa to come through.

“We know it’s in the final stages and hopefully we’ll have some positive news at the beginning of the week,” Watson said. “He’s ready to come, his bags are all packed.”

Wigan coach Shaun Wane was happy enough with his side’s win but accepts they will need to be better against Cronulla in next Sunday’s World Club Challenge.

The champions had the game wrapped up by half-time when they led 26-0 with two tries from centre Oliver Gildart and others from Joe Burgess, George Williams and Joel Tomkins, plus three goals from debutant full-back Morgan Escare.

It was a valuable cushion as Salford struck back with second-half tries through debutant Kriss Brining, Michael Dobson and Junior Sa’u, but Wane was left with mixed feelings.

“It was a good win but we’ve lots to work on,” he said. “We’ll review it and get down to some hard work for next week.

“It was hard to concentrate on this game when we’ve got the World Club Challenge next week. That means a lot to our town and I’ll be getting some players in from 30 years ago (Wane’s Wigan teammates from the 1987 World Club Challenge victory over Manly) to talk to them.

“We will need to be a lot better and will be.

“We never got the ball in the second half and lost our way when Sam Powell was off but I had to rest him.

“We had to blow the cobwebs off today. We’ll be okay next week, I’m happy with where we’re at.”

Wane, who says England second rower John Bateman will be fit for the Cronulla match after sitting out Saturday’s game with a back spasm, was delighted with the return of prop forward Tony Clubb from a ninemonth lay-off with a neck injury.

“He was outstanding,” Wane said. “Having a big body like him back is a big one for us.”