Devils must fix their mentality, says boss
REDS COACH HOPES PLAYERS WILL LEARN FROM ‘RUDE AWAKENING’
SALFORD WAKEFIELD 12 22
IAN Watson questioned the mentality of his side after a ‘rude awakening’ in defeat to Wakefield at the AJ Bell Stadium.
It was Salford’s third successive loss and means the team have just one win from their opening five Betfred Super League fixtures – four of which have been at home.
“We got a rude awakening and we need to smarten up pretty quickly,” said the Red Devils boss.
“Sometimes you can get too above your station and where you think you are as a group because of previous successes.
“It doesn’t matter – you’re only as good as the last game you’ve played and we’ve not won. We’ve beat Toronto and that’s it, we haven’t beaten anybody else.
“That’s the mentality you need to have as a group and as individuals you need to fix that up.”
Watson was particularly disappointed with the showing from his side after what he felt was a good week of preparation.
He said: “I thought we were in the right kind of place physically and mentally to go out there and put in a good performance, but we were far from that. We looked sluggish straight from the off, very heavylegged. We should have been completely the opposite.
“Their middles have marched right through us. To just let them run all over us is embarrassing really as a team and definitely individually – that will hurt a lot of players within our team there.”
Salford actually started the game the stronger side, Pauli Pauli in particular causing problems for his former employers.
A trademark strong run and offload set Tui Lolohea free and he linked with Ken Sio before receiving the ball back to open the scoring.
But in blustery conditions, the Tongan couldn’t convert his own try and that meant the Red Devils were trailing at the break when Reece Lyne exposed some weak defence and found Max Jowitt, who dived in under the sticks and converted his own score.
The home side were back in front early in the second period thanks to a Ken Sio score in the corner eight minutes after the restart.
It was the first of two unconverted tries for the Australian winger, but by the time he crossed for his second with seven minutes remaining, Trinity had secured the victory with scores from Tom Johnstone, Bill Tupou and Kelepi Tanginoa.
“Maybe we think we’re better than what we are,” added Watson, whose side now travel to Perpignan to take on Catalans Dragons next weekend.
“But that will give us a rude awakening today that we’re not actually that good.
“We need to get some stuff sorted out pretty quickly and focus on what we were good at last year, which was being a team.”