It’s not good enough, blasts boss Watson

SALFORD RED DEVILS 12 CATALANS DRAGONS 26

SALFORD coach Ian Watson blasted his Red Devils side after they slumped to defeat by Catalans Dragons at Magic Weekend.

It’s a result that moves the Dragons within two points of Salford in the Betfred Super League and, with a game in hand, they will fancy their chances of overhauling Watson’s side and dragging them back into the Qualifiers.

“It’s a bad result for us,” said Watson. “Catalans have been playing well but it’s not good enough for us.

“Because we’ve got limited numbers some people know they’re secure in the side, but we need to change that.

“We’re not having people thinking they’re secure in their place when they’re turning out performances like that in the second half.

“We’ve got good players. Them players need to stand up.

“Some of the senior players in there need to stand up. Some of them are standing up and some of them aren’t standing up. It’s for us to filter that out.”

One of the few positives for Salford was the return of Rob Lui after three games out through injury.

With their key playmaker back to organise and add a much-needed spark of creativity, the Red Devils set out to play deep in the Dragons’ half from the start, kicking on the fourth tackle of their first set and forcing an immediate error.

From that possession, Derrell Olpherts touched down after a Lui kick, only to be denied by the video referee because Weller Hauraki was offside.

However, the Salford club captain redeemed himself with a barracking run, shrugging off several defenders to charge in under the sticks.

But Salford soon allowed Catalans to establish themselves, handing Steve McNamara’s side repeat sets through ill-discipline and errors.

Benjamin Garcia bulldozed his way over to get the Dragons on the board and Julien Bousquet gave them the lead soon after.

Salford barely threatened for the remainder of the first half and when a loose forward pass on halfway from Josh Wood gave Catalans a good look at their line 10 minutes after the break, it seemed Watson’s side had lost all organisation in defence.

Lui was the main culprit for unnecessarily shooting the line and leaving Jodie Broughton in acres of space to touch down out wide.

Broughton killed off the game with two tries in two minutes to complete his hat-trick and consign his former club to a fourth successive defeat.

Kris Welham appeared to suffer a serious injury in a tackle and had to be helped from the field, but there was some consolation when George Griffin charged onto a good short pass at the line from Lui.