Red Devils wary of response from wounded Wolves
SALFORD will not be taking Warrington Wolves lightly, despite the fact today’s visitors to the AJ Bell Stadium lie at the bottom of the Betfred Super League table.
The Wolves, runners-up in last year’s Grand Final at Old Trafford, lost their opening two fixtures, away to Catalans and at home to Castleford, but produced a fantastic performance to comprehensively dismantle Brisbane Broncos – coached by England’s Wayne Bennett – in the World Club Series.
And the Red Devils are under no illusions that Tony Smith’s side occupy a position that belies their collective abilities and will represent extremely tough opposition.
“Warrington are a great team,” said Salford head coach Ian Watson. “They play a good way.
“I know the kind of standards Tony sets for them and they won’t be happy that they’ve lost their first two league games and they will be aiming to put it right.
“As you saw against the Broncos, if they want to turn it on, they can.”
In the corresponding fixture last season, Salford stormed into an early lead and seemed to be in control of the match at 30-12 ten minutes into the second half, only for the Wolves to fight back and steal the victory with a Chris Sandow drop-goal in the final seconds.
“We went within ourselves,” admitted Watson of that match. “I don’t know if we were shocked at how far we were in front in that game, but we stopped doing what we were doing in the second half.”
Sandow took on new Salford signing Todd Carney in a charity boxing match in Australia in December, but neither will be on show today, with the mercurial Warrington playmaker having walked out on his contract and Carney still building up his fitness after linking up with the Red Devils last month.
“He’s getting there,” said Watson. “His first week was very rusty and his second week has been a lot better so, hopefully, he can have a good week next week and we can bring him into the group.”
Warrington will make a late decision on Kurt Gidley’s fitness after the veteran missed last week’s defeat to Castleford with a virus.
Young full-back Jack Johnson was a late addition to the squad for that match and has kept his place as cover in Tony Smith’s 19-man squad.
WATSON WILL GIVE BOTTOM SIDE PLENTY OF RESPECT